Review: Sufferfest - The Best Thing In The World

Sufferfest have 3 new videos coming out on October 30th. This adds to the existing library of 20 peak-achieving cycling training videos, known to most initiates as simply the hardest training sessions in the world.

I am lucky enough to be in possession of a pre-launch version of one of them now, and I can testify, once again, that Sufferfest has nailed absolutely the most entertaining way of suffering I've ever come across! If Sufferfest is new to you then read my previous review of the series by way of introduction.

Some noticeable renovation in the opening graphics and sequence, so the intro is much slicker - something more akin to the start of a contemporary movie, though still with the essential Sufferlandrian tongue-in-cheek. It gives you less of a feeling that you're about to embark on a fitness program, and more one of the start of an epic saga. The instructions have developed a little too. Now the countdown to increase or decrease intensity comes with a number for the new intensity, so you can prepare your gears (and mind) a little better for the up-coming effort.

The new video I have is called "The Best Thing In The World". It's a 45-minute workout, and will no doubt fit in as part of their Race Simulation series. The main sets of the video involve 2 intervals of 13:30 with a short (!) recovery between them. The footage they use for the 2 race sections are both from the 2015 spring classics, starting with the Amstel Gold race, and followed by Gent-Wevelgem. The effort and intensity model of the intervals is also based on these super-tough races, and they use events in the actual race to create the fluctuations in effort - like Niki Terpstra's flat (3/10) and then subsequent effort (8/10) to get back onto the front group in GW.

I don't want to give too much away about the content here though. There is some entertainment/training value in the element of surprise, and the intensity variations within the intervals are suitably arranged to push you to where you need to be to get maximum training effect. You can expect all the usual Sufferfest tricks and mind-games that keep us entertained, motivated, and most importantly: suffering.

After the 11-minute warm-up we're fairly quickly into the first of the intervals. These are not actually full-gas all the way but, typical of races of this nature, involve a lot of wild fluctuations as breaks are made and caught, and attacks on the sharp "berg" sections demand occasional maximal efforts out of the saddle, so your heart rate will rarely drop below your threshold. Leave it to the Sufferlandrian masters of agony to make sure they push you right to your limits over the duration of 13-and-a-half minutes...twice. I'd once again warn that - except for hardened Sufferlandrian warriors - it's almost impossible to still be nailing the required intensities by the end of the session the first time out. As I mentioned in my previous review, the Sufferfest training effect comes from attempting impossible challenges, that through repetition eventually become manageable. By then you're on another level: IWBMATTKYT!

The main training effect aimed at here is to develop your ability to repeatedly work above your threshold. It will definitely also help push up your FTP. More specifically it develops your ability to respond to surges and attacks within races or group rides. It would be a good isolated last workout for tweaking your race fitness just before a big race, or an excellent part of a race-preparation plan in the latter stages.

There's really not much down-time in the session at all, so it's pretty much a 45-minute blast. As always with Sufferfest, you need to believe. You need to know that the pain is good, that the more you suffer now, the more ass you will kick tomorrow.....unless you're up against other Sufferlandrians that is!

All Sufferfest videos available from: www.thesufferfest.com

Review: Rotor INpower

When Rotor announced the development of their new INpower system of cycling power measurement earlier this year, I was definitely one of the first to pay attention. The new power meter is housed entirely within the bottom bracket spindle of any of their 30mm BB cranksets, including the battery, which is an easily-replaceable standard AA with a claimed 300+ hours of life. The options include all 30mm models which means their off-road cranksets too. The power is read from the left, non-drive-side, crank arm in this case, whereas most others are on the drive side. Swings and roundabouts right...?

I've been using their cranks for a few years now, and have also become a convert to their Q Ring ovalised chain rings. With the INpower, Rotor offer both the full crank arm set, and the option of just buying a replacement left crank arm. This meant that actually I'd only need to switch out the non-drive-side crank arm on my 3D+ crankset, and I'd be riding with one of the latest power meters on the market, and one that was actually designed to work with the Q Rings to refine the exact position of the oval for maximum pedaling efficiency.

When I put my latest bike together earlier this year, though still unaware of Rotor's big plan, I had included a 3D+ crankset with the MAS (Micro-Adjust Spider). I'd had the plan to add a power meter, but just wasn't sure which one to go for. I currently run a Power2max power meter on another 3D+ set, and though this works perfectly well, they're not that easy to get hold of, and grotesquely over-priced outside of Europe. The INpower was going to cost me just over half of what I was looking at previously. I was a dog with two tails!

So the immediate benefit of this new product was a saving of a good chunk of Euros. However, Rotor also claim that the specific design of the power meter to work with their Q Rings includes an analytical software to determine the optimal position of the ovalised ring to compensate for the dead spots in your pedal stroke.

ON THE ROAD

A direct comparison with my other power meters reveals very similar performance. That means 'good' as far as I'm concerned. It gives me power and cadence with reasonably consistent readings at a comparable time lag of somewhere around a couple of seconds from crank impulse to power displayed. I'm using the Garmin 810 that has been my trusted companion for the past year or so, and the ANT+ wireless communication works. I have to remember to do a power-meter search on the Garmin each time I switch bikes, but it's a necessary pairing of one-to-one as with all of these things.

Loading up the data - my favourite nerdy scientist bit - there are a couple of extra parameters measured that aren't on my previous meters. One is Pedal Smoothness, and the other is Torque Effectiveness. Both are only measured on the left crank arm, though there is a reading given for the right arm. I got some feedback from Rotor on this, after they saw the print-out below from my Garmin Connect, and apparently I may not have calibrated the unit correctly.

After calibrating it again in the way described to me, I came up with numbers that look quite different for the right crank arm so I would guess that I'm closer to the truth now.

One issue with calibration is that in the manual it describes the process in a slightly confusing way. The correct way to calibrate is in 2 steps. Set the calibration on your head unit with the pedal mounted, and the left crank arm in the 6.00 position, then turn the crank backwards 2 full cycles and with the arm in the same position again, press calibrate on the unit a second time. You should apparently not need to re-calibrate again after that.

I did initially have a small issue with this meter in that I found myself changing battery 3 times in the first couple of months, as I would get no reading despite repeated attempts to activate the pairing with my Garmin. It seemed I was not getting anywhere near the 300+ claimed hours of battery life out of it. In retrospect it may just have been a lag in repeated pairing of the Garmin with different power meters. As I said, I switch bikes using the same head unit (the Garmin Edge 810) with 2 different power meters, sometimes every other day, and it does sometimes take a couple of attempts before it recognizes the INpower. I've persevered with the same battery now for around 2 months, so I think I was probably a little hasty to assume a change of batteries was needed.

After consultation with Rotor, it appears there have been some software issues, especially paired with Garmin head units. They say this has been addressed with their latest firmware update.  It is remarkably easy to find AA batteries pretty much anywhere, and it really is very easy to replace the battery, even with mitts on, so it's possibly with the ease of this solution that I failed to persevere with the lag in pairing. If I ride the same bike on consecutive days the Garmin generally does not need to search for the unit again.

It is perhaps the most understated of all power meters on the market though, and whether you like that or not, it does mean that all of the delicate stuff is tucked neatly away and protected by some of the strongest bits of the bike. As long as the seal stays tight it can probably withstand some ugly environments and rough treatment - ideal for MTB or Cross?

I love it when things just work. When you turn them on and they do what they're supposed to do, and never stop doing that. But it doesn't encourage lengthy discussion really. And so the summary of this review is basically that the INpower system does everything it should without a fuss and at a fraction of the cost of some of the top-end, and rather more finicky power meters on the market.

I've yet to get to grips with the pedal-stroke diagnostics. Having downloaded the required analytical program, it seems that I need a "translator" program to run a Windows OS software on my Mac, and the one suggested doesn't seem to work. I'll get down to this when I have more time. It all seems to be working well for the moment, so I'm not at all sure that I need much tweaking. I will get there.

All-in-all I would give this product a "highly recommended".

Review: Sufferfest Cycling Training Videos

It may seem incongruous that anyone would have anything positive to say about the pollutant cloud that has descended on the region in which I live recently. The consequences for health in the hardest-hit areas will only become apparent in the future. But for me, living in an area with still-tolerable levels of haze, the fact that it forced all of us outdoor dwellers to retreat into our air-conditioned sanctuaries for a couple of weeks forced me to rediscover the benefits of working on that most hated beast in any cyclists arsenal, the turbo-trainer, or stationary home-trainer. Through that revival, I then came to discover the true joys of the Sufferfest.

Sufferfest is a series of videos devised to offer structure - and motivation - for developing cycling fitness and power on an indoor trainer. The videos are the brain-child of David McQuillen, who started making them for personal use while holding down a high-octane banking job, and still maintains full engagement with the product 6 years after it's launch, though the 9-to-5 was jettisoned 2 years back. With the imminent release of another 3 editions, there will be 23 cycling videos available, and he has also added 4 more for runners and triathletes.

The videos use HD footage from pro races, including on-bike and helmet cameras, as a backdrop, and motivator, to specific timed interval workouts devised with top coaches for developing all elements of a cyclist's fitness spectrum. The clear, on-screen instructions and timing are mixed with David's own brand of cajoling humour, prodding you to go harder, or to complete the challenge. He creates an on-screen identity for you as a Sufferlandrian, and builds a story around your exploits to spur you on.

Most of the full-length workouts are around an hour in duration and cover every type of intensity. They use a scale of 1-10 of effort which you need to get used to in order to perform the workouts to best effect. I  found that I overcooked the intensity initially and could barely finish the workouts. This was, in part, not being used to the home trainer I was using, but also because I was trying to gauge it using a power meter calibrated for road use. I've realised that, at least on my equipment, I can't get a realistic calibration on a flywheel, so I've reverted to rate of perceived exertion (RPE) which works well, as long as you are fairly clear on what your FTP (Functional Threshold Power) feels like (7.5 on the Sufferfest scale), and with an eye on my heart rate just to make sure I'm in the right zone.

They are truly awesome! You will never work this hard on a bike on your own. In a one-hour-plus workout you can really get the maximum training effect in whatever fitness component you're aiming for. I would recommend warming up for at least 10 minutes before you start the video - I'll usually do at least 20mins - as the workout "warm up" is usually pushing your pace up almost immediately.

The cadence stipulated for each effort has to be read with some flexibility in mind. When 90rpm is indicated, read that as "normal" cadence, and likewise if it pushes that number up or down, gauge it against what is normal for you. My cadence is naturally around 100 so I adjust all figures by +10 (-ish) for instance. For those who are used to slower cadences, I'd say its good to try and stay with what is indicated during the warm ups, and generally if you can handle it, the purpose is to speed up your natural cadence. But until a cadence at or above 90 becomes comfortable for you, if it asks for 90 during the main set, use whatever is a "normal" cadence for you - with perhaps an additional +5rpm if you can manage it.

I've found that it's better to ignore the timing of the efforts on your gadget, even though you'll no doubt be recording them. The videos also won't count your efforts down on-screen until the effort is about to change and, especially on the longer intervals, it's just better not to know how much more suffering you have left. It's part of the deal - just do what the coach says. It also takes away any need for unnecessary movements. Believe me, you'll welcome that!

Videos I've used so far include:

• Angels (climbing). 62mins. Main set: 3x8mins. Develops: Threshold/anaerobic endurance. Pushes your ability to stay above your threshold for longer stretches while climbing. Lots of low-gear and out-of-saddle efforts.
• Revolver (VO2max). 45mins. Main set 15x 1-minute-on, 1-minute-off. This is designed as a VO2max endurance session, and the instructions are clear: flat-out all the way. Could also be used as a force-development session using big gears, or quite a few other possibilities. Short and effective.
• Local Hero (race simulation). 85mins. Main set: 3x6, 5x3, 4x2. Starts out with 3 pyramid intervals designed to push up your threshold pace. The next 5 are more towards Anaerobic endurance, and the last 4 improve your ability to finish with a sprint. Easy to overdo the first 3 and compromise the rest, so keep it conservative the first time out. Good for when you have few other chances in a week to do a hard workout.
• Rubber Glove (threshold, FTP test). 60mins. Main set: 20min TT. Actually an FTP threshold test, but good for developing threshold anyway. Winds up the intensity gradually in the warm up, and then, after a break, straight into a 20-minute all-out effort. Simple and painful.
• Nine Hammers (VO2max). 55mins. Main set; 9x intervals of 3-4:30. Develops: Anaerobic endurance. This is my favourite so far. 9 intervals starting each group of 3 with a threshold effort followed by 2xVO2 efforts of 3 minutes. Very hard, but very effective for pushing your VO2max.
• There Is No Try (threshold). 60mins. Main set: a "pyramid" set of intervals starting with one minute and building up to an 8 minute time trial and then back down: 1:00/2:00/3:00/4:00/8:00/4:00/3:00/2:00/1:00, with not a lot of rest in between. Each intervals is divided into 4 equal parts and builds over each quarter to a searing finish above your threshold. Great for pushing up your FTP if you can really handle the required intensity. Painful!
• Downward Spiral (VO2max). 55mins. Main set: 2x descending interval sets using an equal effort-to-recovery ratio, starting with 2:00 on and 2:00 off, and working down in reductions of 15 seconds to an all-out 15 second sprint. Very effective at pushing up your VO2max as you definitely go naturally harder as the set progresses.

I am gradually expanding the above section, so check back periodically for updates. For developing anaerobic power and endurance I already have a pretty wide-ranging assortment collected here....but there's more. With a range like this you could already formulate a pretty effective program!

Expect a few extra surprises here and there in the sessions that don't appear on the menu. So far I've focused on collecting mainly anaerobic endurance types of workout that are hard to do outdoors, as I can (usually) ride all year round where I live, and have some good routes for pure training focus for other fitness components. I have friends who swear by these workouts though, and I can see how well they work on developing power for those with limited riding time. All of the videos push you to your limits if used correctly, and if used as part of a structured program, they will be instrumental steps in achieving your full potential as a cyclist.

By now it has gained a cult following. Users feel proud to be part of an elite fraternity of sufferers with the tenacity to push themselves that hard. The mantra is summed up by an acronym: IWBMATTKYT - I Will Beat My Ass Today To Kick Yours Tomorrow, and it has become the war cry of the Sufferlandrians who have their own flag, national team jersey and shorts. You can become a Knight of Sufferlandria by completing 10 videos in one session back-to-back! (though you should time it carefully as your immune system will be impaired for days afterward).

Training for sport involves the process of adaptation. We push our bodies to withstand more stress than they're used to, and in the recovery process they adapt to be better able to accommodate that effort the next time. Most of us are encouraged to introduce these stresses gradually, so that we back off the intensity as soon as our bodies can't respond at the same level. The Sufferfest way is to throw something at you that is virtually impossible to complete at the given intensity. It takes a LOT of willingness to suffer to complete the session - and a good deal more recovery than normal too - and you're really only getting close to nailing the required intensities after a few weeks of repetition. But the net result is some serious fitness. IWBMATTKYT!

I guarantee you that there is no better way to include those extreme-intensity structured workouts, that are crucial to improve your cycling fitness, than to add these videos to your workout schedule. In a workout taking not much more than an hour out of your day you can get a major boost to your fitness. I have realised a completely different level of suffering since I started using them, and I know it's translating to new levels of power and fitness when I get out on the road.

Sufferfest videos are available from www.thesufferfest.com and downloadable for around $12-15 each for the full-length ones, though the files are quite large so you'll need a good connection. All other information also available through the website. There is also an app available which means you can subscribe to have constant access to all videos for $10 per month.

The Season To Come

I'm already impatient for the 2016 road-cycling season to start. Reduced to channel surfing in the vain hope of finding something faintly related to cycling, you may even catch me watching one of those dreary NBC Ironman triathlon soap operas where they have to explain the entire sport again every 5 minutes. Around now the average roadie is expected to be going through serious withdrawal symptoms - a week or so after most of the peloton were finally allowed to hang their bikes up for the holidays. But I think that it has been exacerbated in 2015 by the more than a few inklings that we can look forward to performances in 2016 that may become some of contemporary road cycling's defining moments. Though we'll all have our own particular angle on this, I would like to make a few observations, coupled with some predictions of who to watch out for.

WORLD CHAMPIONS

I think the recent world championships in Richmond put the blender to the peloton, and what rose to the top was really the cream. I think the era of Peter Sagan is about to start for real, and if only he can find a way to flourish within the court of King Oleg, where I feel he's not in his element, we'll see some breakthrough wins. Vasil Kiryenka surprised everyone except those who have been paying close attention, and though he's not exactly new on the scene, his humility and good nature have so far seen his capabilities used in the team engine room rather than for his own reward. This should change now, though Team Sky are amassing a depth of talent for 2016 that is really quite bewildering.

WOMEN'S CYCLING

Lizzie Armitstead, like Sagan, is really the most worthy winner within a stellar field, and women's cycling looks ready to ramp it up yet again in 2016. With the tantalising proposition that Marianne Vos also returns from her year off to injury to add yet more quality to the field, we should be in for some stunning racing in a gradually expanding women's race schedule. Hopefully we can get a bit more coverage out of Eurosport, and if not, then some other sport channel needs to take up the slack. Can't someone make it a bit more distinctive?

I still feel that women's cycling needs to go through a whole identity and PR shift in order to nurture an audience, and maybe another TV channel can help make that identity shift happen. Using the same formats as the men, and in much the same attire, tends to make the female athletes come across as second-tier, and many of the attitudes portrayed even from within the field reflect that. The more lively and distinctive personalities in the peloton really also need to be brought to the fore if we expect an audience to engage with them. Lizzie and Marianne can really help there.

IN THE WINGS

The grand tours have thrown up a few gems this year. If he'd been allowed to, Mikel Landa would have won the Giro by a country mile in my view, and it was dismal management in the end that meant that Astana ended up with only steps 2 and 3 on the podium. Landa will be with Team Sky for 2016, and I'm fairly sure they are aware of what they have. When he's on form he's able to hit it out of the ballpark. He just needs to work on his time trial.

The Vuelta introduced us to the maturing talents of 2 up-and-coming 24-year-old athletes who I believe both have the full package of talents needed to win bike races. Esteban Chavez is physically the distillation of the pure Colombian cyclist with his size, power, climbing ability, and endurance. He's also fast developing all the mental strengths of resilience, determination, and true grit, coupled with a generous and effervescent personality. He also has great support around him in the family-like atmosphere of Orica Greenedge, and they are already chomping at the bit now that they really have a GC contender.

For me though, the revelation of the year was Tom Dumoulin, with a performance significant enough to again completely re-write the competitive agenda of a World Tour team for 2016. He was in fine form in the early season, announcing himself with searing lone-breakaways in the spring classics, but destiny had other ideas, and accidents and injury stopped him short of making any major podiums. In retrospect however this all may have been for the best in the grand scheme of things.

His bounce-back to form coincided with his inclusion in the Vuelta, which catapulted him to global stardom when he suddenly became an overall contender as he out-climbed the climbers, blew the time trials apart, and hung in there even in the 3rd week only to run out of gas on the last 2 climbs. That he did this having come to the race as an extra engine in a sprinter's lead-out train made it all the more remarkable, as any team support he might have hoped for evaporated as soon as the peloton hit the hills. That it took the concerted, and combined efforts of whole teams to topple him made Fabio Aru probably one of history's least popular grand tour champions.

What impresses me more than anything else about this guy is his emotional coolness. His win on stage 9 was perhaps the most gripping moment in the whole season. On the last brutal 3km climb up to the finish line, he shot out of the front bunch and held them off for half the climb before being reeled in by an attack from Chris Froome followed by Joachim Rodriguez. But instead of throwing in the towel after being passed by 2 of the sports top climbers, he jumped on Purito's wheel, and within 100 metres of the line had the strength and tenacity to go round both of them for the win.

In subsequent interviews you got the impression that it was all new to him, but that he was game for every challenge, and though he ultimately succumbed, his ability to keep his cool and hold his pace was a study in composure and emotional balance. We could really now have the next Eddy Merckx on our hands!

SHIFTS OF ALLEGIANCE

I mentioned that Team Sky are developing an incredibly rich vein of talent. This includes their seeming interest in importing and developing a Basque contingent with Landa and Benat Intxausti both coming in to team up with Mikel Nieve. This must be a consequence of the signing of Basque coach Xabier Artetxe last year. He was instrumental during his time at Seguros Bilbao in developing a lot of the new crop of Basque riders, which includes Intxausti and the Izagirre brothers. Once again, Sky have a devious master plan! They also have the 2014 world champ Michal Kwiatkowski joining for 2016. Within their own already stellar cast which has seen the likes of Kirienka and Italian sprinter Elia Viviana growing in stature in 2015, they already have the strongest ever collection of British classics riders, a 2-time - and current - Tour de France champion, plus a growing orchard of GC contenders at varying stages of ripeness. When you factor in this new contingent of pure hard-core climbers, they are really spoilt for choice, and the 9-man limit to the team they can put together for competition will necessarily involve excluding a lot of the world's top riders from the race!

Not sure if Richie Porte is going to find the kind of support he wants from BMC, but he's a force to watch if he's in a good place. Louis Meintjes is moving across to Lampre Merida, which though I'm not at all sure is the right move for him, will definitely push different buttons for him. I'm also hoping that Dan Martin can find himself in a better place, and with a bit more luck, at Etixx Quick-Step. Marcel Kittel will also be on that team, which looks to be going for the complete make-over.

MTN Qhubeka become Team Dimension Data next year, and with a bid for World Tour status backed up by a team that now includes Mark Cavendish, Bernie Eisel, Mark Renshaw and Edvald Boasson Hagen, they look set to complete their African fairy story. I'm hoping to see Daniel Teklehaimanot take it up another notch and go for some major podiums.

I'm personally waiting to see what Canadian Mike Woods does now that he's made the step-up to World Tour level to ride with Cannondale-Garmin. This is a man with immense potential whose story I've followed since he made the shift from track running several years ago to climb his way up to North American cycling prominence, and a great 2015 season with the Pro Continental US team Optum Kelly Benefits. His presence in the European scene should make itself felt within the year if he can get through the baptism of fire of the Spring Classics.

I can't wait!

The Low Carb High Fat Cyclist - Perpetual Motion

An update on my experiences with the Low Carb High Fat diet, now that it's almost a year that I've been following it. In the process it seems I've discovered the secret of eternal energy, and through my continuing studies, become further convinced that this is actually the way the human body evolved to be fueled over more than 99% of 2 million+ years of our evolution. That we lost it can only be viewed as yet another part of the saga of our on-going downfall.

My awakening to the health benefits of our ancestral metabolic state, has brought with it the grim knowledge that this won't be welcome information to many. Through blinkered thinking, self interest, and hasty public health decisions, we live in a world that is just so far down the track in the wrong direction. It seems increasingly evident to me that the 12,000 or so years of development of our sedentary culture or "civilization" as we like to think of it, while considered widely to be our crowning achievement, is also at the same time our curse. Author Jared Diamond notes in his great anthropological study The Third Chimpanzee that with the advent of agriculture the average height of populations decreased by 6 inches, and longevity by 10 years. Recent studies on diabetes and heart disease have similar observations. But more on that later.

It's immensely difficult to get through the barrage of erroneous and irresponsible information that is out there, not least of all because so many industries, and livelihoods, are now reliant on the established dogma.

What makes it doubly difficult, even without being constantly bombarded by propaganda, is the harsh reality that most of what we have come to identify as food, is actually better labelled "fun". Our bodies have got used to the sugar-rush associated with eating refined carbohydrates, and our days are organized around the need to satisfy our blood-sugar cravings at regular intervals. I'm aware that a lot of the struggle with the LCHF diet comes from the perceived lack of fun in real food. I mean, the most pivotal social occasions in almost every culture on the planet have evolved to be inseparable with the consumption of sugar and refined carbs. Dietary salvation, it would seem, comes with a certain social exclusion.

THE "CALORIES IN, CALORIES OUT" MYTH

One of the most damaging myths in modern circulation, and one that the exercise industry is bent on perpetuating, is that you can basically eat what you like if you have an active lifestyle. I myself used to accept the conventional wisdom that as a fit person I was free to indulge in pretty much anything I fancied in the knowledge that I would be able to "burn it off" later.

The reality is, unfortunately, that we don't lose weight with exercise if we eat wrongly. In fact if we eat correctly we'll reach our ideal body composition regardless of activity levels. Exercise stimulates our appetite as our bodies trigger the impulse to replace the fuel we've used up in energy. In his meisterwerk Good Calories, Bad Calories, Gary Taubes observes that all animals have a central governing system that regulates food intake according to energy expenditure against stored reserves. We humans lose weight if our bodies are able to access and efficiently utilize the stored fat which we all carry around. However, if we feed ourselves carbohydrate, we short-circuit the system. We bombard our blood with an instant hit of cheap and fast fuel - glucose - which our body happily uses for all of it's energy needs.

Glucose blocks the body's ability to use it's stored fat.

In addition, when we have no current energy demands and our blood sugar increases above what we can immediately use, our pancreas creates the hormone insulin which shunts all the blood-sugar to storage sites where it is converted to fat. This creates an immediate need for more sugar. Sugar and modern super-refined carbs start to enter our blood streams as soon as they enter our mouths, so the surges can be quite extreme depending on your body's insulin response. We then experience the sugar-craving which most of us call hunger.  

Insulin also blocks the body's ability to metabolize it's stored fat. 

This yoyo-ing between raised sugar and insulin levels creates the Metabolic Syndrome where the body is constantly craving sugar, which it then stores as fat, but which it cannot then access since insulin controls the release of triglycerides from adipose tissue,. As long as either sugar or insulin levels remain elevated, the fat stays where it is. By eating the wrong stuff we are literally starving our gradually expanding bodies.

PERFORMANCE FUEL

Thus you can see that, though we assume that those involved in endurance sports will have efficient fat-burning, aerobic metabolisms, most of us burn sugar rather than fat for a far higher percentage of our overall effort than we expect. When a marathon runner depletes their store of glycogen and blood sugar after about 2 hours of sub-threshold running, their body can't just flip a switch and change to burning fat.

It's an either-or situation. You're either adapted to burning sugar, or your adapted to burning fat. It takes days just to start the transition from one to the other. Even the most highly trained glucose-burner can store only around 2-hours-worth of sugar, whereas even the leanest of us is carrying enough fat to last several marathons back-to-back. Changing that will require re-calibrating our bodies at a cellular level to again use the super-efficient energy pathway we evolved over the past 2 million years as persistence-hunters.

Sport science for the past few decades has focused on finding ways of optimizing the delivery and storage of glucose to enable our glucose-fueled activity to keep going for longer. Only a rare few had the idea that maybe it was better to find ways of tapping into that vast reserve of fat that we all carry. We will all one day thank them. This is their legacy.

KETOSIS

In a fasted, or glucose-free state, our bodies will gradually learn to efficiently use the relatively slow-burn option of fat for fuel. Our liver produces Ketones from fat, which serve to fuel the organs which in modern humans have grown used to relying on sugar, and our bodies maximize the range of the aerobic energy pathway so that it becomes super-efficient at metabolizing Triglycerides from our fat storage for use in all activity. It will also regulate intake according to what is required for energy reserves, so hunger is a real sign for a need for nutrition, and not just a craving for more cheap, immediate fuel.

To get there is simple, but will need more than a little will-power, and will require days of minimized carbohydrate consumption. You will crave sugar for the first 4-5 days and you'll be cranky and lethargic to begin with. I achieved basic nutritional Ketosis in the only real way possible - cold turkey - within a week of cutting all refined carbs and any grains or starches. After 4-5 days I no longer experienced the cravings for carbohydrate. Having the strength to cycle at anything more than an easy spin took a couple more weeks to kick in however, as my body adapted at the cellular level, or what Dr Stephen Phinney calls Keto-Adaptation. But aside from some rather pathetic rides it was a fairly smooth and painless transition thereafter. The results on my energy levels and well-being were life-changing.

In my studies I've covered just about everything I can find - from the coaching methods, testimonials and evidence in the field of endurance sports, to the latest revelations in nutritional science. I realize that while LCHF is a path to good health for all humans, the demands of an athletic life deserve particular consideration. My past year has been my testing out of this theory, using my own body.


ON THE ROAD

My presentation here is mostly anecdotal. I don't have the resources to run meticulously controlled tests which might offer conclusive results. But what I've discovered is that I am able to keep going with the same level of energy for a very long time. As yet untested as to the actual range I might have. I have developed the ability to push the pace maximally through training. I do regular rides of over 100km on nothing but water. On longer rides I will eat. I try mostly to keep to the LCHF regime if I can. If I'm in a group that needs to refuel I'll generally go with the flow - it's one of the rare times when you can actually eat most things, simply because the body is already in the metabolically elevated, exercise mode and will correctly utilize whatever you give it.

Beyond a 4-hour ride I will get hungry. Literally just that though. Not lacking in energy or feeling depleted in any way. I haven't actually pushed the water-only test beyond this point yet. The longest rides I've done in the past year are just over 200km, and with groups, so I follow the group dynamic, which means having refueling stops, but I have phased out the use of isotonic drinks even on these rides, and now rarely drink anything other than water. In the past year I haven't ever experienced anything remotely resembling that feeling we call the "bonk", when our glycogen stores run out.

GLYCOGEN

So assuming that I can train my body to maximize it's ability to function within the fat-burning, aerobic energy pathway, there's still the issue of that potential glucose requirement for the higher-intensity effort that is assumed will have to come from the anaerobic pathway which relies on muscle glycogen - a stored form of glucose. In racing, and in training to improve our performance, it is commonly-held sport science dogma that we will need to make demands on this anaerobic system if we are to maximize our potential.

MY QUEST

The big question I had when I went into this was how to assess this demand. Much of the literature I was reading suggested that in the fully keto-adapted athlete, no additional carbohydrate would be needed. In fact it suggested that the preserved state of ketosis was ideal for recovery.  Other writings suggest that athletes will need to consume an additional amount of carbohydrate in their diet. Most however agree that there's no one-size-fits-all. The claim is that glycogen will also be synthesized from fat and protein, and at higher metabolic rates in the keto-adapted. Much literature also suggests that we can train our aerobic pathway to be efficient at remarkably high intensities, so that our fat-burnigh metabolism can take care of it all.

I have made the following observations from my own personal experience. This is what I currently believe is working for me, though I'm still experimenting, and I'm still yet to push the boundaries of the experiment in terms of distance, intensity, and (lack of) consumption:

• When riding 1-4 hours of endurance-based, mainly zones 1-3, but even with a fair amount of higher intensity, my body will not require additional carbohydrates under normal circumstances. I will not need to eat during the ride. My recovery drink will contain some added carbohydrate from fruit, but my meal afterwards with be a standard LCHF meal.
• If I am to do consecutive days of the above, I will include a little more carbohydrate in the recovery meal.
• On rides of over 4 hours I have nothing conclusive to offer really, as I haven't pushed the envelope by not eating. Up to now I eat whatever is available on these rides, due to their social nature mostly. I will get hungry at some point, though I haven't experienced any reduction in strength. Convenience and speed of digestion means carbs are the obvious choice. Recovery will involve a similar carbohydrate element to the above.
• If I train at an intensity of zone 4, or shorter durations in 5 or 6, I will include a similar additional carbohydrate element in recovery.
• If I train specifically for anaerobic endurance - zone 5 or above for maximal durations, I will include a fair amount of carbohydrates in recovery, and possibly more carbs in a subsequent meal within 2 hours of training.

So I'm still being rather conservative when it comes to recovery. I have so far had little real opportunity to test the full ketosis theory beyond 4 hours. I think I'm still holding onto the belief that, though we may no longer need carbohydrate supplements during exercise, the recovery process from intense effort will demand a slightly higher percentage of carbs than our basic LCHF formula. The test goes on....

THE NUMBERS

Below is the data analysis of a 4-hour ride I did a couple of months ago without consuming anything other than water. I was reasonably well-rested for the ride, so my glycogen stores will have been good (whether I actually tapped into them or not is still unclear). For the last 20km downhill of the ride we went quite hard, in fact my highest heart-rate reading for the ride of 179bpm was recorded during this section. Average HR for the ride was 145bpm (threshold is around 168bpm). My highest average 5-minute power output at 258w was in the last hour, while my highest average for 20 minutes, at 215w, was on the first climb (estimated FTP at 238w). My energy levels were consistent throughout.

I have plenty more of these but they all offer up pretty much the same picture, so I won't bore you with it here.

WHAT TO EAT?

Crucial to give a picture really, as most people can't imagine how they might eat if they took out the bread, rice and pasta etc. In fact it really is like only eating the nutritious stuff and jettisoning the fluff. You actually eat less in terms of volume. Just more fat.

As an example I covered a sample of my normal diet in my last post about the subject, but to summarize the principles: we're talking about replacing the calories you'd normally get from carbohydrates with fat. The protein content of your food should remain pretty much the same. Fat is denser in calories than carbohydrate so you need to eat less of it. The best fats are animal fats. Other good fats include coconut, palm kernel, almonds and olive. Saturates and Monounsaturates. NOT seed or corn oils. Omega 3s are essential, though not too much. The longer chain Omega 6s only in small quantities.

Those still duped by the Cholesterol myth can refer to my earlier posts below, or should read this or this.

Additional carbohydrate when needed should come from fruits. Not grains or starchy vegetables.

During a ride, if you're hungry, obviously carbohydrate is the easiest food to digest, but as long as you're not about to go "full gas" include as much good fat as you can comfortably digest, and some protein. I've found that half-boiled eggs (with butter?), some fruit, and tea with cream work pretty well, but mainly because that's easily available on most of my rides.

Dairy is awesome, but check that you're not lactose intolerant. Everything should be full fat.

Low fat = high carb.

My favourite recovery drink is full-cream milk and beetroot juice.

SO WHY DON'T THE PROS DO THIS?

The most interesting testimonials will come when those who ride, and win, grand tours are using a LCHF diet. I'm sure that within the extreme parameters of the effect that this kind of brutal event has on the body, things evolve that otherwise wouldn't. I still see top pros in these races obsessed with maintaining their blood sugar, and suffering withering melt-downs when they "hit the wall". That means their bodies are still reliant on carbohydrates as a primary fuel or that wouldn't happen. Of course the rigors of a 3-week race demand ridiculous levels of food consumption, which even then fall short of replacing spent reserves, and leave the athletes under-weight, with impaired immune systems and even reduced muscle mass. I'd be fascinated to learn how a body adapted to ketosis could evolve to deal with this extreme situation. It really is like a complete re-wiring of your metabolism.

While there may be teams or individuals that are secretly applying these principles, to my knowledge it is still at the "secret weapon" stage if it exists at all. I'd say it's a typical case of "you can't add to a cup that is already full". The pros are all advised by their appointed "experts". Very few of the doctors, coaches, and sports scientists recognized (entrenched) within the sport are open-minded enough to completely challenge the prevailing dogma. Couple that with the fear of losing even the slightest competitive advantage, and it should be easy to see why ideas become entrenched.

In fact it was the complete 180-degree turn on diet of one of my personal gurus, and one of the most respected sports scientists, Professor Tim Noakes, that prompted my interest in this food revolution in the first place. He has become an evangelist for this revolutionary cause, and though the book Real Meal Revolution was, until recently, only available in South Africa, it has now been published internationally. The website Real Meal Revolution remains one of the best resources for updates on what they call the Banting diet - the science, the testimonies, the recipes, and the growth of the movement, plus lists of acceptable and prohibited foods. Noakes has converted some top marathon runners and other sportsmen to the LCHF diet, with stellar results.

Of course there are plenty of other age-group and amateur athletes like myself out there already reaping the benefits of reverting to our ancestral metabolic state. Jeff Volek and Stephen Phinney's great book The Art And Science Of Low Carbohydrate Performance was first published in 2012. But for us it's much less of a risk, and we get to try all this out in a relatively non-lethal environment, since we don't make a living from winning.

I think we can anticipate a wave of young graduates from those currently in sports science and medical programs, unable to dismiss the unraveling evidence of dubious Public Health practices, and excited by the real science now being put forward by Noakes and a growing contingent of free thinking academics. These guys will be the coaches and team doctors of the near future.

SUMMARY

There's no doubt in my mind that this is the way to go. Whether your purpose is to become a better endurance athlete, lose weight, regain your health, or just improve the quality of your life, the LFHC diet works. There may be those who don't respond so well to it to begin with because of certain metabolic predispositions, but there is a growing body of resources for all of us to find the balance that suits us best.

This is still very much a work-in-progress, so expect more updates. I realise many of you will be hoping for more scientific testing and results. I will get deeper into it, but I'm no lab rat. My main purpose is to open minds to the possibilities. For now I again refer you to a blog post by an amazing Finnish endurance athlete, Sami Inkinen, who has data on a couple of scientific tests he did during his process of training the body to run on the LCHF diet.

Further information:
http://riders-cafe.blogspot.my/2015_02_01_archive.html
http://riders-cafe.blogspot.my/2015/04/nutrition-3.html
http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2014/07/27/saturated-fat-cholesterol.aspx
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lDneyrETR2o
http://talkfeed.co.za/lchf-diet-elite-athletes-high-intensity-sports/ 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8NvFyGGXYiI

Review: Dura Ace C24 9000 Wheelset

Tyre Type: Clincher
Rim Material: Carbon
Braking Surface: Alloy
Rim Depth: F:21mm, R:23mm
Rim Width: 20.8mm
Hubs: Dura Ace, sealed.
Weight: 1364g without skewers
Spoke Count: 16/20
Tyres used: Continental Grand Prix 4000. 23/25mm


The latest wheels in my hands for testing have no pretensions to the all-rounder throne. These are, unashamedly and in-your-face, climbing wheels, and I would suggest that they probably offer the benchmark for this type. In my search for a worthy climbing wheel I'd also considered the Mavic R-Sys SL, which claims an even lighter weight, but I'd come across a few horror stories about them, so decided to give them a miss in favour of these, which were actually a bit cheaper. Though nobody seemed to be raving about them exactly, they had no negative press that I could find.

I wanted to see how much better a pure climbing wheel fares in comparison to my normally favoured all-rounders. In the end, the only thing they might have lost out on is in not being deep enough to offer any aerodynamic assistance, but real evidence of even that is absent. These wheels work so well for me that I'm now loathe to use anything else for routes with even the slightest whiff of a hill

First of all, they don't seem to be any less aero than the 30+mm deep ones I've been using, so that assumption goes out the window. I'm not sure quite how they achieve this - my understanding of aerodynamics is evidently too simplistic - but there's plenty being written about these wheels if you care to get your head around the tech.

The low spoke count definitely gives these wheels a vertical compliance which is extremely welcome and immediately noticeable. However, any expected lateral compliance isn't there, apparently thanks to wider hub flanges - which means greater torsional rigidity. They respond very quickly indeed.

The word that best describes these for me is "nimble". The rims are very light so they really jump with direct responsiveness when you want them to. The acceleration is awesome. I really have become quite addicted to the way they feel, and the almost complete lack of time-lag between the thought and the action.

On a technical note, one slight issue I'm having is that the rims are a bitch to get tyres onto, so I dread getting a flat. I've heard this from other users of the DA 9000 range, especially those - like mine - that are built to take the new option of tubeless. However, once you wear the tyre in a bit and with a decent pair of cycling mitts, you should be able to fix a flat without destroying your hands.

Another tiny, pet peeve is that they're too quiet. I'm a bit of a freewheel-buzz addict, and these are among the most silent I've come across, but you know what: it didn't take long for me to completely forget my reservations about their lack of audible presence.

I think overall these do pretty much anything I'd want a climbing wheel to do so I can forgive them for being a bit muted.

ADDITIONAL NOTE - 14 November 2016.

The braking surface on these wheels is a little on the thin side, so given the fact that they get a fair amount of rain thrown at them in my environment, they are wearing a bit thin now, after perhaps around 10,000km of hilly riding in the tropics. If I'm careful I may get another few thousand out of them.

It would be an option to replace the rims, since the hubs still seem to have a few years of life in them at least, but from what I've heard, replacement Shimano rims are difficult to get hold of, and the 16/20 spoke count makes them an unusual find otherwise. 

I'd say you should not consider these if you're a nervous descender, or otherwise heavy on the brakes. I'd also say that if possible, you should use these on days when it is less likely to rain.

Developing Form

Form is often talked about as a component of cycling. Though there are wider (mainly aesthetic) issues that relate to the accepted norms of how cyclists dress and behave, the most important discussion of form refers to the technique applied in transferring our energy into moving ourselves forward on a bicycle. This is a component that, if one has it, is immediately apparent to the experienced eye, and like all subtle aspects of any skill, is easily overlooked, but will greatly improve the speed of your later development if addressed in the early stages.

Technique in any sport can be improved upon, but the percentage of difference this makes to the eventual outcome varies massively from sport to sport. However, the first rule of any sports coaching program is that technique must be perfected before any other work is done, as developing strength, speed or endurance without proper technical base is pointless, or even dangerous.

When we first approach cycling, the simple act of balancing ourselves and pushing down on the pedals to move forward seems to cover it. These are muscles we use daily for all sorts of normal stuff, and it may be hard to see initially how much more involved the technique might get. However, once we clip our feet into the pedals, it should be clear that we now have the potential to use a whole different set of muscles.

If we could get the legs to work equally all the way around the pedal cycle, in theory we would be able to generate a much more even force, and spread the load over a greater range of muscles, thus reducing the cost to our cardiovascular system, and enabling us to go faster for longer.

That's the theory. There are many views on this, and no real consensus in popular circulation. Some coaches insist that tests have shown no real advantage to the development of other sections of the cycle, and that the downward force from the quads is still the main driver. I have seen tests on video that claim to show that there's minimal difference, but these are tests on random cyclists, not on those who have specifically trained their bodies to work in this way.

Of course we have inherited a body that has evolved over millions of years to walk, jump or run, and so the most developed muscles we have in our legs are the ones that push down. If you take the average human and put them on a bike, and run tests to see how much positive difference pulling up on the pedals makes, I'm fairly sure it would be minimal.

If we are to get the other muscles in the leg to work for us, we will have to start developing them over many years before we start to see real changes. Those coaches however, that work with national track teams and can implement the appropriate exercises and monitor them over a longer period of the athletes development, will tell you that developing muscles that work through the entire pedal stroke is an essential part of becoming a world class cyclist.

What is perfect form? A time triallist has the most perfect form of any cyclist. If you think of Bradley Wiggins, Fabian Cancellara, Tom Dumoulin, or any of the other specialists in this discipline, you see that form in action: very little motion in the upper body, and a very smooth and almost effortless-looking pedal cycle. This is because they have eliminated unnecessary movement and balanced the muscle firing patterns and work-load to maximise the power going into the pedals all the way around the stroke. When it comes to pure transfer of power, they are the masters.

So what are the muscles, beyond those that activate automatically, that we can activate and develop to complete the 360-degree motion?

Though it might seem that the quadriceps and gluteus maximus are the main protagonists in the most basic of cycling actions - literally just stomping on the pedals, the actual activation of the glutes is a much less natural one than we're used to from a normal squatting or rising motion. As the largest muscle in the body, the glutes can really be developed for some serious power endurance, but will need some focus to get them to activate to their full potential.

The hip flexors are a muscle group that will probably have the least automatic engagement for most of us, but can really help your pedal stroke if we can effectively engage and develop them. It is these muscles that will give us a strong pull up and forward on the pedals. Then we also have the calves and muscles involved in the rotation of the ankle. By isolating and working on these additional muscles, we start to get a more complete rotational picture to our output.

So how do we isolate and develop the muscles needed to work through the whole pedal stroke? Well the use of standard strength training equipment has limited value aside from helping with the general strength improvement or size of the target muscles. Logically, the most valuable improvements are in drills using the actual bicycle cranks, with resistance adjusted to target specific muscular reactions and development.

A useful diagram showing the effective use of each muscle group in the pedal cycle

ONE-LEGGED DRILLS

The easiest way to identify and engage the other working muscles is to ride on a home trainer or stationary bike and do one-legged drills. Assuming we're clipped into the pedals, removing one foot from a pedal and cycling with one leg only will quickly identify where we need to improve strength. The first time you do this, you will probably have trouble keeping the pedals rotating smoothly, but keep the resistance low and persevere, concentrating on keeping everything except that leg as still as possible. To get used to it you should probably only do it for a max of 30 seconds before either switching feet or going back to using both legs in between each isolated side.

Start with a very light resistance and progress to a set alternating 1 minute per leg for a total of 10 minutes concentrating on a smooth pedaling stroke and keeping the upper body as motionless as possible. The motionless upper body is a real test of form as it indicates wasted energy. It will quickly identify how weak your core is. Specific work on your core should be a part of every athletes training schedule and should be done off-the-bike using dynamic abdominal and lower back exercises.

1+1 FORM DRILLS

This is for me the most effective drill. It can easily be done on a home trainer, but I prefer to do it out on the road - I have an ideal training route for it. Look for either a flat section or a fairly consistent upward gradient that gives you at least 20+ minutes of uninterrupted pedaling.

You are doing 1-minute-on, 1-minute-off drills using both legs but isolating muscle groups used in specific sections of the pedal stroke. The minute between each drill you should spin as easily as possible in a high cadence to recover.

For the minute on, isolate one muscle group used in the pedal stroke, concentrating on only using those muscles for the minute. I usually start by isolating the glutes. I'll do this 5 times (1+1x5=10 minutes) before switching to the next isolation - the ankles - for 5 reps. The next one will be the hip flexors and the upward pull on the backside of the pedal stroke. Another 5 times. Then finally I will combine the 3 above-mentioned muscle groups for another 5 intervals. If you run out of road, start again on another stretch or go back to the start. I'm lucky to have a stretch of 3-4% that lasts me for over 40 minutes of these. Keep the intensity of the effort low. These are not intervals designed to elicit a training effect from your cardiovascular/energy systems, so your heart-rate should not be significantly affected. The muscles will be easier to identify with reasonable resistance to begin with, but you should aim to work the cadence up to your normal spin to complete the picture.

I don't personally find a need to work on the quads and hamstrings in this way. Mainly because they are already well-utilised within my normal cycling stroke, and so the 1-minute recovery interval will, by default, involve these muscles. Others may have different deficiencies however, so keep asking the more experienced riders in your groups for suggestions on where your form weaknesses are.

BIG GEAR DRILLS

At the beginning of the program, or early season, I will deliberately use a higher gear - thus a much slower cadence for these drills. This ensures that you can concentrate on the consistent application of force on the correct part of the stroke. I call these Big Gear drills. As the program progresses I will gradually increase the speed of the cadence right up to my natural spin, though ensuring that I concentrate on the full stroke always. I will usually introduce this shift by increasing the cadence first over the last set of drills (the muscle groups combined).

TRAINING TO STAND - PISTOLERO DRILLS

For me the definitive contemporary example of the out-of-the-saddle style of climbing on a bicycle is Alberto Contador. His "dancing on the pedals" style is his trademark. He says himself that he has trained to be able to stand for up to 20 minutes continuously, and that though it may provoke a 4-5bpm rise in his heart rate, it generates more power, and gives him a significant respite for muscles used in the seated position.

Now most of us will have found that when we get to a steeper part of a climb, we can generate a brief surge of extra power by standing, possibly with a shift up in gearing, and use the full body to power through the steep bit. However, most of us will only be able to keep this up for 10-20 seconds before we go anaerobic, forcing ourselves to sit back down and shift back to the easier gear. The problem is that we are simply using our maximum force - stamping down hard on the pedals in order to achieve maximum leverage. While effective briefly, it is not sustainable.

If you pay attention to how the pro climbers do it however, you will see that most of the time when they stand, they are in the same gear as when they're sitting - meaning that they are maintaining the same cadence with either technique. This is a crucial point to understand in developing this ability. We have to train to stay out of the saddle at a higher cadence. which means a significantly lower resistance.

When we first try this, we will usually find it difficult because we're used to needing to increase resistance - shift up - or we go through the downward part of the stroke too quickly. This is because our pedal strokes are too one-sided - we push down mainly - and when standing we also have most of our body-weight added to the down-stroke. So the first step is to do the above drills working on the other sections of the pedal stroke so that we can then counterbalance with the rest of the stroke.

Again, the most important muscles to focus on are the glutes, hip flexors and ankles. The hip flexors are used to kick the leg up and forward, the glutes start over the top of the stroke and push forward and down, and the ankles maintain a rotational movement of the feet that assist it through the bottom of the stroke. The core plays an even more important role when you're standing since your only contact points with the bike now are your feet and hands.

Once you're starting to feel the effects of the above drills on your technique, the next step is the standing drills. Same approach: 1-minute on, 1-minute off. Again keep it as easy as you can. For the minute on, you should aim to not put too much pressure on the pedal down-stroke, but to keep the pressure light and rotational. It's very difficult at first (if not totally counter-intuitive) to limit the down-stroke, but persevere and you'll feel the change within a couple of weeks. If you find a minute too long, start with 30 seconds. In between you just need to sit back down, but try to keep the cadence high throughout. Eventually you should be able to do this without taking your heart rate up by too much.

Keep it as a regular part of your training week and it could become your secret weapon!

Related Articles:
http://riders-cafe.blogspot.my/2015/05/the-physiology-of-endurance-cycling.html