Cycling is a great forum to face your fears. Nearly every aspect of cycling presents some barrier which must be overcome to succeed. For instance:
For some, urban cycling is terrifying because of the stop-and-go riding, foot traffic, and chaos of cars.
For others, cycling in the country can inspire fear because there are so few services and no one to aid you in case of emergency.
The first time a new rider goes for distance, she can become intimidated by the sheer uncertainty about new stresses on the body or the bicycle.
When that rider advances to clip-less pedals (the ones you clip into are called "clip-less") there is the ever-present fear of not being able to clip out in time.
Riding in a group can always inspire fears of inadequacy.
But the number one fear which lingers even in experienced riders is getting up those long, steep hills — and then getting back down them.
Now fear is, of course, a good thing. It will keep you riding safely in traffic. It will keep you from leaving your house without your cell phone on long, lonely rides. It will help you to remember your limits, and inspire you to practice cycling skills before you have to use them.
That being said, its equally important to keep your fears in check for they will hold you back. And as with other aspects of cycling, you keep your fears in check by regular, routine practice.
One of the the thrilling things about cycling with friends is watching the fears fall away as they advance. Soon, things that petrified become things that excite, and cycling becomes about the adventure, the exercise, and personal goals.
Later in the week I'll write about overcoming fear of hills. In the meanwhile, read my essay on cornering (which I need to update).
Its 4:45 a.m. Its only about 60º in the bedroom, so couldn't be above 35º outside. The day promises to be grey and windy, and I know I'm going to have to fight for every mile of the day's cycling adventure. Still, I get up, eat, and get into my car for the 90 minute drive to San Francisco (or Tahoe, or Santa Rosa) and smile in spite of the grumbling. Adam wants to know: How do you motivate yourself to do it? The answer is twofold: first, I make it a mechanical process so that I don't have to think; second, I keep my goals in mind.
A. Automatons Meet their Goals
Image credit unavailable.
Making fitness a mechanical process is the process of making it a priority in your life. To do it, you have to first set aside the time you need, making it sacrosanct so that nothing will dissuade you. That means knowing what you need to do ahead of time and literally calendaring it out. Once the plan is in place, you have to make it easy to accomplish by removing physical barriers. A typical ride works pretty much like this for me:
"Hey, Matthew, want to go for a 100-mile ride at Lake Berryessa on Saturday?"
Matthew, of course, says "Yes. Pick me up in Davis at 7:00 a.m."
Then, sometime that week, I let my clients know that they'll have to leave messages on Saturday — there's only spotty cell reception on that route!
Before I go out on Friday, I layout all my bike clothing, fill my water bottles, make sure my bike is clean and good to go, and I have plenty of snacks ready.
Friday night, I make sure I'm home by 10:00 p.m., having eaten a carb-rich meal and drunken very little alcohol. Then I prepare the coffee pot and a bowl with oatmeal, nuts, brown sugar etc. to be made as soon as I wake up.
Get up at 5:30 a.m. so I can leave my house by 6:15 or so. Make my oatmeal and coffee, eat them quickly and post on Facebook complaints about getting up so early.
By the time I've used the toilet, packed my car and started off, I am usually smiling happily.
So, by doing this, I've committed my time to someone else, made sure that I am not going to be interrupted during that time, made sure I wasn't hung over, and made the process of getting up and out as easy as possible.
Yes, its hard to get out of bed, but that's when I have to think about my goals.
B. Knowing Why is Half the Battle
When I'm convinced I can't do it, then I remember why I'm doing it. You definitely have to psych yourself out on this front, because if you let doubt creep in, your goals start evaporating quickly.
My primary goal is simply overall fitness. My plan is to live to be a healthy, happy centenarian. The only way that is going to happen is to keep my body moving, muscles toned and useable, good cholesterol high and bad cholesterol low. Exercise is key to doing that. More than once, I just had to remember how much pasta I'd eaten the night before (in preparation for the ride) to get my butt out of bed. Then you start thinking how you can burn between 4000 and 7000 calories on a 100 mile ride, and how many morning buns that equals. Food is a great motivator.
My secondary goal is, of course, sex. I want to look good and feel good. I've learned that only a lot of exercise will help me keep the fat off. Diet alone never works for me — its got to be accompanied by a lot of aerobic exercise. For me, that's usually about 14 to 30 hours per week. And again, many mornings I get out of bed thinking about one of the Bears of the Day (such as the gentleman pictured). I know I'll never look like that, but as a goal, its still a great motivator to imagine I can.
Then there's the adventure. In no small measure, cycling is about adventure — remembering the fun of seeing a new landscape, mooing at passing cows or llamas, seeing the sun rise over a calm lake, making it to the top of an impossibly steep hill, or a thrilling descent into a cool shaded valley, these things make each ride different and unimaginably fun.
Finally, of course, there's the AIDS/LifeCycle. Each year as I train, I think about how great its going to ride with 2,500 of my closest friends, camping each night, eating in the chilly dining tent, getting to know new people and seeing the amazing accomplishments of my friends. And all this for the great cause of bringing life and dignity to people living with HIV and AIDS. When they finally find that cure, I'll be proud to know I did my tiny little part to bring it about.
So these two are like a positive feedback loop: I set a goal, then I do things to make it easy to accomplish that goal, by accomplishing that goal, I want to set another goal... With each accomplished goal, its possible to set a more ambitious goal. There seems to be so little in my life over which I have control. It feels so good to be able to do this one thing under the illusion that I am controlling it.
Every time I ride in a non-ALC event, I have to learn the hard lesson over and over: no one likes being told they are cycling unsafely, even when they are. However gentle the reminder, I always manage to piss someone off. Is the admonition not to pass on the right such a stinging blow to the ego? I suppose it is considering the reactions I've gotten!
CJ and me; Photo by CJ Julian.
This past weekend I rode in the Tour de Palm Springs, a charity ride with multiple courses of varying length. There were, according to the volunteer who checked me in, over 8,000 pre-registered riders and an expected 2,000 additional riders. That's an astounding 10,000 riders! I did the century, and from what I could tell no fewer than 2,000–3,000 riders did that route with me, and it felt like we were all on the road at the same time.
Despite some killer headwinds (followed by even more killer tailwinds!!), I did not observe anyone injured or stranded. Still, for all 100 miles, I could count on one hand the number of people who engaged with their fellow riders.
Few people said "good morning" as they passed, let alone calling out "on your left." Often, the entire travel lane was crowded with buddies riding side-by-side, requiring passers to enter the oncoming lane. Few people announced when they were on your wheel, but expected you to know they were there.
What does this mean? It means that we who care about this sport have to check our own egos and spread the word that friendly cycling is safe cycling. Keep admonitions to a minimum, but make them pointed and clear. Make sure to follow the general rules of etiquette ourselves. And remind our new rider friends to ride as safely as they can before they go out on the road.
And for me it means keeping cool and keeping my comments to a minimum.
Just for completeness sake, here is a simplified version of the ALC safety rules:
Obey all traffic laws, traffic signals and signs — and stop at all stop signs.
Ride as far to the right as is safely possible.
Ride defensively, predictably and stay alert; assume car drivers cannot see you.
Always wear your helmet when on your bicycle.
Ride single file and leave at least one bike length between you and the rider in front of you.
Communicate your intentions and potential dangers with hand signals or by calling out in a loud, outside voice.
Look behind you before passing to make sure it is clear. Pass only when it is safe to do so and pass only on the left. When passing, call out loudly, "On your left!"
Never wear headphones or ear buds while on your bike.
Control your bicycle: Keep at least one hand on the handlebars at all times.
Be courteous and respectful of others. We are a diverse community. Please be thoughtful in your conduct and choices, and sensitive to the feelings of your fellow participants.
Not all these rules make sense all of the time, but in events such as the Tour de Palm Springs — and the ALC, of course — they are very important.
If you want to live a happy life, tie it to a goal, not to people or things. — Ernst Straus (orig. French), cited by Einstein: A Centenary Volume at 32
I'm 46, yet I still feel like a kid. Maybe its because I'm gay, no kids, and live happily with my partner. Maybe its because when I set my goals, I set them properly. Among my goals are: put my health first, learn to be an athlete, make sure my husband is happy, and not live for money. Sometimes, I think that these are weak goals and that I could do more. But then I get on my bike.
I ride my bike every weekend. I rarely ride less than 60 miles in a weekend, or less than 100 miles in a week. I usually ride at least 200 miles per week. I never set this as a goal, it just happened.
When I tell people I'm going for a bike ride, they often brighten and smile and ask me how long I'm going. When I respond "30," "40," "50" miles or more, their faces darken and they ask: "Why?" To which I never seem to have an answer that I think sounds satisfying. But really, I know why: cycling helps me achieve all of my goals.
Danny and I on an ALC Training Ride 1/26/13
When I bicycle so much, I feel more fit and happier. Being more fit, I look younger and have more energy. Having more energy makes training easier and more comfortable, so I'm more likely to get back on my bike next time. By focusing on riding, I can clear my mind of worries about all the little things that causes anxiety, which reduces fear about money issues. All this helps my relationship, though I do think that Davey feels like a widow sometimes...especially as the AIDS/LifeCycle approaches and I'm riding back-to-back 60 mile days on the weekends.
Plus, each ride is an adventure. There's always something amazing to see — things you cannot see from your car. Every time I go out there, I learn something new about Northern California, human nature, and the world in general. And learning is the most important thing we can do.
What better goals could I possibly have on this mote of dust we call home? There are more grandiose goals which I consider vital — helping others, learning about the cosmos, dispelling ignorance — but one must start those personally. Hopefully, I'm doing my part with these goals, too, however amorphous they may seem in my day-to-day life. And that is one reason I ride in the AIDS/LifeCycle: to help others and dispel ignorance.
I am a strong advocate for weight training to support cycling. Even modest weight training builds muscle, strengthens bones, and helps to build core strength — important because cycling does not do these things. If done properly, it is safe and will help riders avoid injury, rather than risking a chance of it.
Hitting the gym can be a foreign experience to cyclists, but how you lift weights in just your first week of strength training can lead to better results. In a study of rest intervals between exercise sets, researchers found that limiting breaks to 60 seconds during the first week of weight training boosted study participants' hormonal response to the exercise. —Bicycling Magazine
Strength training may (or may not) be important for professionals; but for recreational cyclists all you need are some inexpensive free weights or a gym membership. The single most important advice for everyone doing weight training is to focus on form, rather than amount of weight lifted. For this reason, you will need some kind of instruction.
There are lots of training programs for cyclists, and if you are going to cycle competitively, they may be useful. As cited above, there is a debate amongst professionals about cycling training and workouts. From this debate, you'll find many complicated strength training routines on line and in various expensive looking programs. It seems unlikely that any recreational cyclist will need that level of complexity. So instead, find a reliable source and stick with it, so long as it works for you.
I get my training advice from Scooby's Workshop. A wonderful, free resource with video instructions on nearly every weight training exercise a new weightlifter will need.
Generally, here is a list of tips I've gathered over the years:
Focus on Form: Focusing on form will help you get the most out of the workout and reduce the chance of injury.
Lower the Weight: Lower weights with high repetition is generally safer than higher weight with low repetition.
Avoid Real Pain: Listen to your body: not all pain is gain. Pain in joints, pain which is sharp or sudden, pain in the lower back are allbad. The only pain which is beneficial is the almost-pleasant muscular soreness you can get after any energetic activity.
Stop Before Injury: So, if an exercise feels odd, it could injure you. Stop, check your form, and lower the weight. Or skip that exercise altogether (you may not be ready of it, or it may simply not be for you — we're not all the same!).
Swinging Causes Injury: Avoid exercises that have you swinging heavy weights: this could lead to injury.
Complex Motion Causes Injury: Avoid exercises that have you moving your body in more than one plane at a time (for the same reason).
Keep Mentally Fit: Don't compare yourself to others (unless doing so inspires you). You don't know how long they've been training, or how they are training.
Be Regular: If you train diligently (at least three times per week), you will see results. Be patient.
Be Patient: Results gained over a long period are more likely to be permanent than those gained quickly.
Make Life Changes: So — like an improved diet and cycling — make weight training part of your weekly routine.
Be Routine: Your workout should last about an hour for cycling purposes, but do more if you feel comfortable.
Be Committed: Don't chat, fiddle with your iPhone, gawk at the muscle men (much), or nap during your workout. Get in the gym and get it over with. You should be moving nearly constantly during your workout.
Develop your Core: Ripped abs come from diet and aerobics. A strong core comes from strength training. Do both, but don't expect that six-pack until you get your diet under control.
Body Weight: Exercises that use your body weight (pull-ups, chin-ups, push-ups, hand stands and the like) are excellent strength training exercises that can ultimately be done nearly anywhere without too much special equipment.
Vary your Program: Sticking with training does not mean sticking with a routine until it becomes so dull your stop doing it. Additionally, your muscles will respond to changes in exercise and intensity.
But most importantly, enjoy the workout. If you find it too hard, too dull, or too confusing, try something new. And keep safe at the gym, so weight training will support rather than impede hours on the road!
"Core" is a fancy way of saying "abdominal." (The Wikipedia article on "core training" redirects to "abdominal exercises.") As Scooby says:
Strengthening the abdominals is important for basic health to keep you injury free. Strong abs help stabilize the spine and keep you from injuring your back. Strong abs are important in virtually every sport, from golfing to running.
We cyclists may think that we are excluded. After all, the power behind the pedal stroke is generated in the quadriceps, hamstrings, gluteus maximus, and calf muscles. Isn't it? The answer, I think is partially yes and partially no. The immediate power you get comes from your legs, but what's behind the legs? Supporting them is your torso. The torso is the wall against which all the other muscles push to generate power.
So if the torso is weak, the wall is going to crumble before the ride is over:
YOUR BULGING QUADS AND RAZOR-CUT CALVES are the envy of your pack, and you start every ride strong. As the ride progresses, though, your hips seesaw in the saddle, your lower back aches, and you slow in corners. The problem? Your core cries uncle long before your legs wear out. Although a cyclist's legs provide the most tangible source of power, the abs and lower back are the vital foundation from which all movement, including the pedal stroke, stems. (Bicycling Magazine, links in the original.)
So, how do you build core strength? These are some tips that I've used and noticed a marked improvement in my core strength and riding ability:
First, riding itself will help, but is not likely to be enough to keep you strong on long rides. In concert with these other suggestions, core strength will improve over time.
Second, cross train. Mixing in another sport — anything from walking or swimming to weight training or tennis will help develop different sets of muscles, skills, reactions, etc. which can only help strengthen your core.
Fourth, improve your eating habits. I'm loth to say "diet" because that implies a short-term solution. I have actively improved my eating habits and plan to keep my new habits for the rest of my life. Just making smart choices may be enough to reduce fat and increase muscle. A stricter diet may be required if your goal is to race, but for recreational cyclist, start with Scooby's "simple substitution" method to improve your diet. But, remember that cyclists have specific nutritional needs before, during, and after rides.
Lance Armstrong used performance enhancing drugs and hid that fact from authorities (find the report here). He won seven Tour de France races that way. The Tour de France is arguably the most important athletic event in France. Stripped of his titles, Armstrong no longer represents the paragon of American sport, but possibly the best of the worst — the one who was found out.
Its an embarrassment for the country but more importantly, it is an embarrassment for the sport. Its so bad, that not only are sponsors leaving Armstrong and his foundation, but they are also abandoning the sport, generally.
Here is an excellent article from a true Lance Armstrong fan who makes no apologies and draws no conclusions. But his tone demonstrates his extreme disappointment:
We live in a different age, one that may not allow the forgiveness of Lance Armstrong, that may hold him to be the creator rather than the product of the era he reigned over. We might even judge this champion's cheating and lying too vile to permit the remembrance of the part of him that, even now, convinced that he doped to win the Tour, I can't stop being a fan of: the plain fact that he was, as even his bitter enemy Floyd Landis told me when we spoke last year, "a badass on a bike."
I've never been a fan of professional athletics. I think the pros get paid way too much in proportion to their contribution. But I am a cyclist and this is my sport. I want to encourage others to participate — cycling is a great way for people of all fitness levels to get in shape. I want those people to know they can ride a bicycle without doping. I don't want kids risking their health to emulate the great riders.
Riding a bike requires almost equal parts skill and trust. And successful cornering is all about trust. One cannot ride in a straight line forever, though I suppose it is feasible, so inevitably turning is going to come into play. There are at least two kinds of technical turns which cause trepidation and fear among cyclists: turning on a fast descent, and curves from a steep ascent into a steeper grade. They require different technical skills, but the same level of trust.
A. Trust
To succeed, you have about three things to trust: your skills, the road, and your bike. Trust in your skills comes from experience and practice. The more and longer you are on your bike, the more comfortable you will feel on it. Read my prior post on training for an overview. Shifting and braking skills are particularly important in cornering.
Trust in the road comes from knowing the road: where the turns are, the amount and ferocity of traffic, and the likelihood of debris or potholes. You will trust a road better if you've been on it, or if you're on an organized ride where the host has, ostensibly, driven the route and place warning signs for cyclists and drivers.
But, for most, the lack of trust comes from a fear of mechanical failure. So you need to know your bike. You need to make sure the chain is lubed and clean. You need to make sure your tires are properly inflated. You need to make sure you've replaced the consumables on your bike within the manufacturer's wear specifications: chain, tires, chainring and cassette, brake pads, cables.
Again, confidence in your bike comes from experience riding it, but more it comes from knowing how it works (Exploratorium's excellent page on bicycle physics, but a Google for others), and knowing how to repair it. Both of these topics are huge; I'm going to write a non-egghead article on why a bicycle stays upright (teaser answer: we don't know).
But you can start to gain more trust in your bike by working on it:
Making a turn on a bicycle is easy compared with explaining what you do to make a bicycle turn. Your position, the bicycle's position, and the position of the front wheel all make a difference. In our experiments with bicycles, the Exploratorium staff has discovered that you can initiate a turn to one side by steering to the other side. Motorcycle riders call this "counter-steering," a small jerk on the handlebars in one direction to initiate a turn in the opposite direction. (Emphasis added.)
But these are some tips I've learned over the years:
Keep your head up.
Look into the corner, not at the ground.
Moderate your speed before you enter the turn, not while you're in it.
Beware of gravel on the road, but don't freak out about it — Don't slam on your brakes!
Keep your inside foot up and your outside foot down (to keep from bashing your pedal into the ground).
Avoid riding your brakes to keep them from overheating (thus heating the rim and leading to a popped tube, see the section on Fast Cornering).
All this takes practice — or not. You learn this stuff by feeling it and doing it more than by reading it. But you can visualize yourself on the bike performing all these techniques, and improve in that way. Try it!
C. Fast Cornering
Oh, geez, this is hard! I'm an new rider, and my descent skills are just beginning to bloom. However, one lesson I've learned is that I have to let go — mostly of fear — to get down the hill. The more I ride, the faster I can make it down the hill. And believe it or not, faster is better.
If you ride your brakes to descend slowly, you will wear out the components on your bike faster, make it more likely that you have a catastrophic failure of some key system (most likely the tires), and increase the chances of slipping on gravel or in a pothole. Instead, practice using your brakes sparingly on descents — to moderate your speed when you cannot do so by other means (gently brake, release, gently brake to keep from overheating), and to lower your speed as you enter a turn (keep your head up!!).
.For some, a descent full of twists and turns is nothing short of bliss, while for others it’s pure terror. Wherever you fit in this spectrum, you may find helpful some instruction on how to handle unforeseen problems.
Steep descents can be tricky. Steering will be exaggerated, small turns become more difficult, and your weight is transferred forward. This is a very different experience from riding the flats, and you must know how to counteract these forces. In addition, the road surface conditions play a greater role. At slow speeds, potholes, gravel, spilled oil, and fallen tree limbs are a challenge, but at high speeds such conditions can become a greater threat.
On the topic of cornering in descents, the article continues:
When cornering, lean your bike while keeping your body more upright. Weighting your outer pedal [another way to look at counter steering] and/or pointing your inside knee into the turn can help you maintain proper cornering position. An abrupt steering correction can break the front tire loose, as can the front brake if applied with too much force. Ride within your limits, and adjust your speed based on your line of sight.
And as to braking:
Speed control on descents is essential, which is best accomplished by feathering, or light taps, of the brakes. Stopping distances increase greatly with speed (especially when the rims are wet!). ... The steeper the descent, the less hard you can brake without pitching over the handlebars, so choose a speed that will allow you to stop comfortably if there is an obstacle or hazard just out of sight.
Another problem in descending steeply is that the wheel rims and brake pads may get hot if you apply them too frequently or for too long a time, potentially causing tires and tubes to fail. Use both brakes and short intervals of braking with time in between for the rims to cool.
The article then recommends braking in less steep area rather than on the steepest portions of the hill. Great advise to keep you from doing an endo and will help keep your brakes cooler.
D. Slow Cornering
Equally daunting for some is a slow assent into a steep turn. I'll have to ruminate on this and draft a complete article, but the principles will require, again, practice! The primary tips I have are:
Make sure you're in a gear that can accommodate the increased steepness (possibly your lowest gear, or "granny gear").
Keep your cadence up (this is the other half of being in the correct gear for the hill) so that you don't burn out your muscles half way through the ascent.
Keep your head up and look into the turn.
Most importantly: Don't stop pedaling.
Well, that's it for now. Don't hesitate to ask questions or make comments!
Proficient cyclists are more than just efficient and athletic, they are safe cyclists (California cycling fatalities have decreased in recent years). Cocky cyclists are hospitalized. I have a right to talk about this topic. Not. As you may have read in other articles, I take safety very seriously. I never ride without my helmet; I always wear gloves; I signal religiously; and I point out obstacles to riders behind me even when they are oblivious. What I do do, though is run red lights and stop signs. Not every one, and only when I deem it to be safe, but under prime circumstances, I won't wait.
I've rationalized this practice. I tell myself that hanging out in an intersection makes me vulnerable and reduces my mobility. California law contradicts this sentiment:
Bicyclists must obey STOP signs and red signal lights. It’s a good idea to stop for yellow lights too–rushing through a yellow light may not leave you enough time to make it across the intersection before the light changes.
California bicycle regulations are available on the DMV website (do a Google search to find your state or country's regulations).
The law specifically provides that, apart from the listed regulations, bicycles are subject to the same laws as motor vehicles under the Vehicle Code. That means cyclists must stop at red lights and stop signs. I begrudgingly agree with that I'm in the wrong with respect to them. (I do take exception to the suggestion that cyclists stop at yellow lights. As a general practice, that is not going to make you friends with surrounding motorists.)
This was all a set up to the point of my article: You got to own your place on the road. Own up to being a cyclist. Encourage others to bicycle.
That was the point of a recent Slate article about the inherent conflict and out-of-proportion fear and loathing drivers have about cyclists:
Every time another bicyclist pulls some dickish stunt, [drivers' negative view of cyclists is reinforced]. The same isn’t true in reverse: The conviction that bicyclists are erratically moving hazards is not diminished by the repeated observance of safe and respectful riding. … [But, once] a person becomes aware of her biases, she is more able to engage rational thought processes to overcome the affect heuristic and dispel her inaccurate conclusions. So, study those stats bike haters!
The unfounded, negative attitude toward cyclists revealed its ugly head a couple months ago when a driver in a fancy convertible pulled up to me and said, "Stay in the bike lane asshole." Being that he was in a car, I should have flashed him my patented smile and given him a thumbs up. I hadn't been doing anything wrong!
It was a narrow two lane road, crowded with parked cars. I was, as is my habit, riding the white line to stay away from opening car doors — a perfectly valid habit under the California code and one that has saved me from collision. But of course, how could I convey that message best in the split second as he passed? "Fuck you, asshole." That pretty much summed up the substance of my comments, even as he slowed down to tell me how I was maligning cyclists in the eyes of motorists.
As if I care. Actually, I'm a motorist too, albeit only rarely. I do care. I don't want to care, but I do and I know I should. Owning my cycling means being safe, obeying the law, and leaving righteous indignation where it belongs — in blog posts infrequently read. As Jim Saksa said in the Slate article I quoted earlier: "So, let me say this to drivers, pedestrians, and my fellow riders alike: I’m sorry. See, aren’t cyclists the nicest, most polite people in the whole world?"
On Saturday, I overheard some party-goers discussing sleep. They were touting the utility of sleep deprivation, joking as if it were funny. The gist of their comments was that less sleep means more time to work. Although there are two problems with this premise (the first being that one should spend all non-sleep time working), the second is the primary problem: scientific evidence establishes that lack of sleep produces a host of ill consequences. Insufficient sleep may:
Decrease academic performance (this story was on NPR as I was editing this article; "...when teens don't get the sleep they need on a given night, the next day all kinds of things can go poorly...").
The best quote from any article I read was:
"Very extraordinary boy. . . . Goes on errands fast asleep, and snores as he waits at table . . . a wonderfully fat boy." Charles Dickens penned the first description of the Pickwickian syndrome, a syndrome that provides one of many intriguing links between nutrition and slep. Though patients suffering from it may be improved by dieting their basic disorder is a neuro-physiological one that gives rise to overeating, to daytime sleepiness, and to characteristic nocturnal sleep made up of an endless sequence of apnoea, abortive grunts, and explosive snorts. —Nutrition and Sleep (1972) British Medical Journal.
"Not only do athletes need sleep to improve on their athletic skills, but the restoration that occurs within muscles during deep sleep is important," says Sara Mednick, PhD, a sleep researcher at the Salk Institute in La Jolla, Calif. "If you don't get enough sleep it can be detrimental to your performance."
The WebMD article lists ways the researchers used to improve the athletes' sleep.
Not only can lack of sleep negatively affect your athletic performance, but extra sleep may actually improve your athletic performance. For instance in one study:
Athletic performance was assessed after each regularly scheduled swim practice. After obtaining extra sleep, athletes swam a 15-meter meter sprint 0.51 seconds faster, reacted 0.15 seconds quicker off the blocks, improved turn time by 0.10 seconds and increased kick strokes by 5.0 kicks.
Turns out that when you are sleep deprived your leptin decrease[s] and your ghrelin levels increase which causes your metabolism to slow down. It also makes you hungrier so that you eat more. Sleep deprivation is a double-bad for people trying to lose weight – it makes you burn off fewer calories AND it makes you eat more, so you get FAT! (See his references.)
Ghrelin is a hormone which regulates hunger. The more hunger, the more you want to eat. Sleep deprived people have whacked ghrelin levels and an increased difficulty with weight loss. Leptin is a hormone which regulates energy intake — and an decrease in leptin causes your metabolism to slow down.
Sleep deprivation causes the body to burn muscle:
Sleep deprivation makes you burn muscle rather than fat! If you are dieting while sleep deprived, you will burn twice as much muscle and only half as much fat.
And do we really have to describe the importance of muscle to cyclists? Really? If so, read here.
Scooby touts a book called the seven habits of some-kind of effective people. I personally hate self-help books, so I won't advocate it here. But Scooby does have some pointers on how to get better sleep. Try them out. Various things which have worked for me are:
Giving myself some breathing room before bed time by spacing out with a good book.
Imagining myself floating over the house, and then slowly rising up to view the earth, then the solar system, then the galaxy.
Trying to clear my mind of all thought.
Taking a hot shower before bed.
Washing my feet in cold water before bed.
Telling an imaginary computer to lower the temperature, suffuse the room with sleep aids, or anesthetize me.
Avoiding stress right before bed.
Not drinking too much alcohol right before bed.
Being well hydrated.
Getting enough exercise during the day.
Taking ibuprofen when needed for exercise-related aches and pains.
I have many other little things which help.
If stress is the thing which keeps you awake, consider what the stressors are and how you can eliminate them. Life is too short!
I have 23 inch thighs based on my non-scientific tape-measure-only measurement. I'm proud of my thighs. I developed them over years of cycling and I'd say they were my best feature. But they're not at all like these muscle puppies:
Andre Greipel and Robert Förstemann
This is the famous "quad-off" image where two track cyclists compare their lower guns. Förstemann's thighs are an astounding 34 inches in diameter at the thickest point. That's 11 inches larger than mine, and larger than his waist! Thighs of no shorter than 23.6 inches are necessary for track cyclists:
“The picture is definitely real,” said Benjamin Sharp, the high-performance endurance director for USA Cycling. “[Track c]yclists have strange shapes: big quads, small waists and big butts. It’s hard to find pants.”
* * *
Athletes tabbed the baseline measurement for an acceptable sprint cyclist’s thigh at 60 centimeters, or 23.6 inches. Newell cited the American cyclist Jennie Reed as someone she envied in that regard.
Fortunately for us mere mortals — and for endurance riding, which is what we do on the AIDS/LifeCycle and on your average century ride— thighs of that proportion are unnecessary. Developing nut-crunching quads is probably going to be counter productive for most of us anyway.
Still, weight training is important to help improve endurance and stamina. Focus on helper body parts. This is what I've experienced, though its, again, not entirely scientific. (Here are some generalized tips for weight training and endurance cycling; let me know if you find other sites.)
Developing arms, chest, and shoulders will give you strength to hold your body in equally between the seat and the bars, improving balance and technical skills.
Developing your "core" — abs and lower back — will give you more power in the saddle and will reduce back pain, allowing you to ride for longer.
Developing your gluts will give you power and balance out the pressure on your quads.
Developing your calves will strengthen your up stroke and give you better control over the bike.
Of these, developing your core is probably the most important. Having a strong torso will allow you to more readily maneuver the bike and that should improve reaction time to obstacles, making you a more confident rider.
This video makes me remember how every time we reached a new point on the ride there was some wonderful, inspirational person waiting to cheer us on. I'm crying as I type. Thanks Ginger. Thanks to every single person who smiled and waived at me as we rode by.
With the Olympics in full swing, reports abound (well, I've heard one) about the roll of science in elite athletics. From materials research to physiology to psychology, the sciences are producing steady and legal gains on performance. In sports where tenths or hundredths of a second divide the winner from the loser, tiny gains are important.
As I listened to the report, I was wondering how we mortals can freeload some good training advise off of the Gods without paying a red cent. Here is some information — some more, some less useful and some more, some less new news — I gleaned from the story:
Feeling well prepared for your event improves your performance more than psyching yourself up for it at the last minute.
Carbon fiber rocks.
Lactic acid is not the evil it was once thought of.
Each type of exercise has a lactic acid profile, and scientists can
You burn more fat from low-intensity activity and more carbohydrates from high-intensity activity.
Polyurethane swim suits scared the IOC so badly that they were banned from the competition.
Hydration is vitally important in competition.
Only a tiny fraction of the population can be an elite athlete.
Although no single thing struck me as something I could use on a day-to-day basis to change my workouts, one thing does fall out of all that hi-tech information: athletic competition is hard. It astounds me to some degree that Olympians think about the same things I think about when I ride: keeping my heart rate at a good level, keeping hydrated and well-fed, worries about not performing up to my potential, wondering if my equipment is aiding or hindering my performance, among other things.
Another thing which stood out: I'm never going to be an elite athlete. While its true I never thought that before, it is good to think about. Sport needs to be fun for its own sake to be worth doing. So don't worry if an oldster smokes you on a hill; the only person you have to psych out is yourself.
Training is key to long distance cycling...and training is half the fun. Even if you don't ride every day, or prepare aerobically for the event, there are still lots of things you can do now to prepare for the AIDS/LifeCycle 12.
Here's a check list of things to prepare for. If you don't want to read all my comments, just remember that nothing will prepare you for each of these better than experiencing them for yourself. (But there are lots of helpful links in the text.) (Enjoy the video; the first ALC 12 fundraising video I've seen on YouTube...what a go-getter!)
Daily Riding: Few of us have time to do a 50 mile ride during the week, so do it in pieces: commute on your bike. If you commute 10 miles per day, that's 50 miles per week! Daily riding for any distance provides confidence of experience, added physical strength, and practice with the technical skills listed below. Get out of your car and commute on your bike. (Bonus: no more cardio at the gym!)
Distance: Finishing a difficult ride is gratifying and each ride increases experience. To ride 60 to 100 miles well, you have to practice. Start with easy and familiar terrain and add miles in small increments. Avoid a new ride with unusual challenges when selecting your first long ride. However, you can get a great experience on an organized ride either for charity or with a group of friends to support and encourage you.
Consecutive Distance: Once you're ridden your first century, you're not done. Try to pair it with a 60 mile ride on consecutive days. Such challenges will prepare your muscles for future rides, improve your stamina, and boost fat burning.
Inclement Weather: Learn to ride in all conditions — and learn to care for your bike in all conditions. Successfully changing a flat during an unexpected rainstorm and then finishing the ride will make you feel like a cyclist rather than a bike rider!
Heat and Sun: Prepare with electrolyte to replace lost salt, sunscreen, sun sleeves, a hat for under your helmet, and lots of water. Drink constantly and before you feel thirsty; eat before you feel hungry.
Wind: Sunscreen, chapstick, and a windbreaker are invaluable. Cycling windbreakers are gossamer and outrageously expensive high-tech devices, but pack small when removed. See "Terrain: Flats, False Flats and Headwinds/Crosswinds, and Tailwinds" below.
Cold: No one wants to wear bulky clothing on a ride, but cold-weather riding can lead to hypothermia and that is such a ride killer. (Google "hypothermia and cycling," there were so many links.) So dress for the descents not the climbs. If you think there won't be wind, you might be OK with a thin jacket or windbreaker. But if its cold and windy, you'll need something more. But even winter cycling jackets are thin (though less packable). Plus you can get cycling leggings, winter sleeves, and insulated bike shorts which can be removed if the weather gets nice.
Rain: Combined with cold and wind, rain will cause hypothermia. Prepare with quality cycling gear, and avoid stopping until you can be someplace warm and dry. Once you've mastered how to ride and stop in the rain, you'll feel invincible.
Terrain: Practice your technical skills by focusing on a particular type of terrain, even though rides often offer a variety of terrain types. For instance, vary rides between a short 25 to 40 mile hilly ride with a flat century. Then evaluate your skills to improve your performance.
Rolling Hills: A series of short climbs followed by short descents (but one man's rolling hill is another man's mountain). Some routes with rolling hills make you feel like you're flying (Paradise Loop in Marin), while some feel like death-marches. See the section on shifting, below.
Climbs: Don't fear climbs. Just ensure all your gears are in working order. Once you're on the hill, mentally break the climb into chunks. Use flatter sections to catch your breath. Avoid stopping on steeper sections; restarting on a steep ascent is challenging. Also avoid walking to the top as that can undermine your confidence — go slower, and prepare by reading some climbing tips.
Flats are often deceptively easy. But unlike rolling or hilly terrain, constant pedalling is required to create forward momentum. Going for 20 mile non-stop on such terrain can be draining, especially at speed. Learn to pace yourself.
False flats are really subtle up-hills. If it looks flat but there's no wind, you're probably really riding up hill. Check your altimeter.
Headwinds: The winds can be deceptive; you might not feel any wind at all and still be in a headwind. So if you're struggling on roads which are usually easy for you (and you're not bonking) there's probably a headwind. Learn to ride in headwinds.
Crosswinds can be worse since you can't manipulate your riding position to avoid the wind when your broadside is exposed to it! Learn to ride in crosswinds.
Tailwinds: Everyone loves a tailwind! If you feel like you're flying on a road you've been struggling with, go ahead and attribute it to your months of training and how righteously you kick ass on the road. We all do. (But here are the maths on cycling aerodynamics.)
Urban Riding and Traffic: Read my posts on safety, read my posts on riding in traffic, and wear your helmet! The gist is: urban riding will teach you how to stop quickly, how to stop frequently, how to ride in traffic, how to avoid pedestrians, how to signal, and how to leave your road rage at home.
Country Riding and Isolation: Read my posts on nutrition and cycling. Know the locations of parks for water and restrooms, convenience stores, or other similar locations on all rides, but especially on country riding. Avoid riding alone when going out into the middle of nowhere!
Technical Skills and Obstacles: This is a huge topic and involves: riding with others signaling to other riders both your intentions and road hazards, avoiding obstacles, weaving, bunny hopping, riding very slowly, unclipping quickly, starting from a stop on both steep descents and ascents, and many other things.
Endurance, Nutrition, Muscle and Core Strength: In addition to long rides and climbs, building muscle and especially building your core will help you feel like a winning cyclist. I'll write more about this topic. And re fat burning: The less you have to push uphill, the easier it is!
Early Rising: Learn how to get your ass out of bed. The best way to do it is to make a plan to meet a friend for an early morning ride. To make it easier, get your bike and gear ready for the next day and have coffee or breakfast waiting for you when you wake up.
Cornering: Cornering is a technical skill requiring its own entry. Look for an upcoming post all about cornering.
Shifting: Don't be shy to shift. Your bike has 18 gears. Use them.
On the ride, I interviewed several people about their experiences riding for charity. Here's my interview with Miguel Diaz, a friend from Sacramento. With his team, Miguel participated in four events and rode over 1,000 miles to raise money for charity. I asked him about dedicating so much of his life to the ride.
(I think this may be the first video where I got the sound right!)
Miguel is an inspiration. Thanks for answering my question, Miguel!
I'm writing this as a follow up to my entries on safety (here and here). Scooby from Scooby's Workshop posted the following blog entry on "#1 Most Important Safety Device" and made some compelling arguments for his point. Scooby argues that aware cyclists are most likely to be hit from behind, and if they can see the cars behind them, they are better equipped to avoid them.
I think he overstates this argument. Helmets are far and away the most important safety equipment you can have while cycling. Head injuries can be severe, even in low-velocity collisions, if your head hits something hard. As reported by LiveStrong:
Studies have shown between 45 and 88 percent of brain injuries could have been prevented with helmet use and that wearing a helmet could prevent as many as 85 percent of head injuries. [Citations at link.]
For instance, head injury is a major source of concern in low-speed auto accidents:
The present preliminary survey was of 56 accidents in urban traffic. 50 per cent of surviving motor-cyclists incurred head injuries. Soft tissue facial wounds were sustained by 38 per cent and fractures of facial bone and teeth by 11 per cent of the injured. The majority of the accidents occurred at speeds of 30 m.p.h. or less to riders of machines of small cubic capacity. (From PubMed.)
Similarly, if a cyclist's head hits the pavement, a car, or even a person and even at low speeds, his is much more likely to be injured than if he has a properly fitted helmet in place. Conversely, bike helmets protect in high-speed impacts as well. As this site argues, the cyclist is likely to have decelerated prior to striking the ground -- without a helmet that person is dead but with one, he may well be saved. Here's an excerpt:
Myth 1: Helmets do not provide any protection to the head in the event of head impact crash. Fact 1: Every case-controlled study proves the exact opposite. A list of case controlled studies is included below.
Myth 2: You shouldn't wear a helmet because helmets do nothing to prevent accidents. Fact 2: This is poor logic for not wearing a helmet.
Myth 3: "The evidence of the protective ability of helmets in the event of a collision with a vehicle remains unclear." Fact 3: This is a favorite one that's trotted out often, most recently in the U.K. after a conservative leader David Cameron was spotted riding with his helmet dangling from his handlebars. It's true, that if a vehicle (or a bicycle) runs a red light the vehicle broadsides the bicycle at 50 MPH, a helmet is probably not going to save the cyclist. But in reality, most car/bicycle accidents are not of that type. Typically the cyclists will go flying through the air, an will be decelerating until they hit the ground, and at impact they will be going much slower than the vehicle that hit them. Bottom line is that helmets have a huge protective effect in many, if not most, vehicle/bicycle collisions. Isn't it funny-sad how these lobbying groups have learned all the code words and are able to ignore all the evidence with statements like "remains unclear" or "needs more study." Just like those that don't believe every scientist in the world about global warming.
The site also contains links to studies on head injuries and helmet use.
On March 10, 1998, the CPSC published a final rule establishing 16 CFR Part 1203, Safety Standard for Bicycle Helmets, which applies to bicycle helmets manufactured after March 10, 1999. The interim mandatory standard that went into effect on March 17, 1995, continues to apply to helmets manufactured between March 17, 1995, and March 10, 1999. The standard mandates several performance requirements including:
Impact protection in a crash: The standard establishes a performance test to ensure that helmets adequately protect the head in a collision or a fall;
Children’s helmets and head coverage: The standard specifies an increased area of head coverage for children age 1 to 5;
Chinstrap strength: The standard establishes a performance test to measure chinstrap strength to prevent breakage or excessive elongation of the strap during a crash;
Helmet Stability: The standard specifies a test procedure and requirement for a helmet rolling off a head during a collision or fall; and
Peripheral Vision: The standard requires that a helmet allow a field of vision of 105 degrees to both the left and right of straight ahead.
In addition, helmets meeting the standard must have labels indicating that they comply with CPSC requirements.
Scooby argues that avoidance is better than protection, and maybe in a perfect world he'd be right. But even when you see a car which might hit you, you may be powerless to do anything about it. (For instance, a parked car jams its door into you, shoving you into traffic.) Bike helmets can save you, even when you cannot save yourself.
Thus, while you probably should get a mirror, you should never ride in traffic without a helmet. Never ever. Thus, helmets are the #1 safety device for a bicycle.
Chris and Gary are a couple from Ventura who participated on the ride together this year. Chris has been on the ride five times, and Gary this once. Gary was a roadie...a group of excellent individuals who volunteer to support the riders by providing all the services needed to keep everyone safe, fed, and watered for all seven days.
For 2200 riders, there were about 500 roadies. That means the ride requires its own mini city, schlepping the copious stuff from camp to camp -- including about ten tractor trailers with showers, kitchens, and gear, huge tents which become cafeteria, commissary, and medic station, and all the rider's gear. Plus, every 20 miles or so on the ride is an amazing set of rest stops with snacks, water, and Gatorade -- and all staffed with volunteers.
Little known fact: though the ride started out as mostly gay people, 50% of the riders in ALC 11 were straight! Though HIV/AIDS affects more straight people globally than gay people, it remains stigmatized here as a "gay disease." (First link leads to a great video from an Ontario HIV awareness organization.) For that reason, I thank all our straight allies from the bottom of my heart.
I heard so many inspirational stories from both straight and gay people -- I wish I could have interviewed each and every person. But I'm just too shy! I did get this great interview with Samantha Wallace, blogger and one of our training ride leaders on ALC 11. (Link to her blog is in the sidebar.) Hear why Samantha rides:
Thank you Samantha for your dedication and for cruising all the very fine straight and gay guys with me. See you next year!
Here's my one minute with Jon Walker, my good friend and tent-mate on the AIDS Lifecycle 11. Jon's talking about being properly geared for the weather conditions! I think this video was taken in the morning on Day 3. Day 3 was clear and sunny -- a welcome change from the rain the day before -- but was cool in the morning.
Here's my interview with Neil Giuliano, CEO of the San Francisco AIDS Foundation about what inspires him about the riders on the AIDS Lifecycle. (Sorry about the audio quality, remember, I'm a beginner!)
And once again, many thanks to the San Francisco AIDS Foundation, the Los Angeles County Gay and Lesbian Center, and the ALC. Words cannot describe how wonderful the ride was.
Over the next few days I'll post the six video interviews I did on the ride. The interview below is one I posted already: Alic Shook from San Francisco. I asked Alic why he was riding on the AIDS Lifecycle 11. Alic and I met on training rides and he's an inspirational person for me. He's and incredibly strong rider and always seems to be smiling.
Hopefully this is a higher quality video. Sorry if the sound is off...I'll have to work on that for next year. I took these videos with my phone after all! All the responses are well worth parsing out the background noise for.
I took these little videos to inspire my boyfriend to do the ride with me next year. I hope they inspire you to do so, too. If you do, please let me know! I'll interview you and get you up on my blog...and maybe I can "be the reason" for you!
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