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Cycling Training Tips

My Goals as Cycling Coach 2008

I thought it might be interesting to have a little insight look to my work as cycling coach in 2008.

This season I have significantly reduced the number of riders I plan training for. Thus, I have only 2 riders that receive training plans in 2008. These two riders are both very talented and focused on optimizing their training with power meters, so I still spend quite a lot time on coaching. The most important reason I have reduced the number of athletes is time. July 2007 I became dad for the very first time and in January 2008 I finally graduated as medical doctor at the University of Aarhus.

Becoming dad was the most fantastic experience ever and makes every day even better. Thus, I have naturally given the highest priority to my little daughter, Lea. Finishing of my studies on the university also took a lot time and starting in my first job as medical doctor is obviously also quite time consuming. These two factors made me conclude that I had to reduce the number of athletes if I shouldn’t reduce the quality of what I did.

As I mentioned previously, I will only be coaching two riders this year.

U23 rider makes progress with SRM power meter

The first rider is Jakob Bering who is riding his second season as U23 rider. He rides for a continental team called Team Designa Køkken. I have been coaching him for more than 6 years. He won a silver medal at the national championships for U23 last season and played a central role in Denmark’s team victory in Tour de l’Avenir (Tour de France for U23). He is a climber and is currently training very hard to peak his performance in a stage race in April. Hopefully he will be representing Denmark in the U23 World Championships later this year.

Jakob uses a SRM power meter in all intervals and until now I have been very satisfied with the numbers I receive in my inbox. He is stronger than last year and compared to last season we’ve known the dates for peak performance in months. There is a huge difference from planning a peak performance in two months instead of just two weeks (or less..!). Now he is a more integrated part of the national team, which gives me a better possibility to plan his training and tapering compared to last year where every little stage race was like having an exam. When I plan a tapering protocol for a specific race I usually start at the peaking moment and work backwards. If I have 14 days, I start with the day before the big event, then the day before that one and so on until I reach day 1 in the program.

Tapering protocol is a corner stone

Thus, my programs are often identical in the final period because the tapering protocol is a corner stone in all my training programs. Though these tapering protocols look identical they might be adjusted to some specific requirements in the upcoming event.

Junior rider focusing on climbing

My other rider is Rasmus Malmkjær who is a talented junior rider. He rides on a very strong junior team which is probably the strongest junior team in Europe (Team Festina Hobro). His speciality is climbing steep climbs, so I hope that he will make some good results in some international junior races in southern Europe this year. He uses a Polar CS600 to optimize his results. Climbing is his number one skill, but on home ground in Denmark he will still be a strong rider, though he will be not strong enough to compete with the best riders on windy, flat roads. My biggest challenge is to make him produce as many watts as possible compared to body weight, making him an even better climber. We won’t focus much on flat races, because that will never be his speciality.

Challenging jobs as cycling coach in 2008

Thus, I have some really challenging and exciting jobs as cycling coach this year even though I have significantly fewer riders. I have received several emails with questions about why I’m not posting so often and I hope that this post explain why. Since July 2008 I have re-published some articles that deserved some additional attention. I hope that all readers understand and in some way respect this decision.

What coaching jobs I will do in 2009 is still uncertain.

If you have any questions or comments to my plans for 2008, feel free to post a comment.

My Goals as Cycling Coach 2008 Read More »

What is a Good Resting Heart Rate?

This is a very common question among cyclists. I have heard several people discuss this topic and have often seen them compare registrations of early morning resting heart rates. The fact is that you can only compare these values with your own previous registrations. The reason for this is that we all have a different anatomy of our cardiovascular system. But these systems are all based on the same physiological mechanisms. Thus, we can learn from each others’ physiological experiences and adaptations, but we can’t compare individual heart rate values. E.g. your resting heart rate is 58bpm while your friend’s heart rate is 42bpm, still I can’t say which one of you are in the best shape nor have the highest VO2 max.

Autonomic nervous system regulates resting heart rate
The resting heart rate is closely related to the autonomic nervous system. You will probably already have noticed that your resting heart is lower when you are in good shape. This is because of a larger stroke volume or more correctly a bigger parasympathic drive on the sinus node. This is one of the central adaptations to endurance training.

Know your resting heart rate
A good reason to know your normal level of resting heart rate is that you can use it to discover overtraining or illness. If your resting heart rate is 10-15 beats above normal, you might have a disease. In that case I will recommend you take your temperature and look for other symptoms. Avoid intensive training or races if you don´t feel well.

Some values to compare with (don’t do it”¦)
There are great deviations in normal resting heart rates. Many well trained cyclists normally have a resting heart rate in the 40’s, some in the high 30’s and few in the low 30’s or lower. There are also well trained cyclists or even professionals in the high 40’s or low 50’s. And as I said previously: Don’t compare values with others’”¦

What is a Good Resting Heart Rate? Read More »

Why I Would Recommend The SRM Training System

The SRM Training System was the first power meter for road cyclists on the market. SRM uses a special crank system which measures the workload you apply. Thus, it is a direct measurement of the workload. That makes a lot more sense than the indirect methods used by e.g. Ibike Pro.

Several years of experience
SRM has had several years to optimize their products with valuable experience from top riders and scientists who have used SRM as power meter. As I have mentioned earlier, one of the best ways to learn more about power meters (or heart rate monitors for instance) is to spend several hours on the roads with the power meter mounted. The more data you can accumulate, the better picture you will get of your performance and what a power meter can do for you. Reading about training principles and basic exercise physiology will naturally help on your learning curve, but don’t underestimate the value of practical experience.

I think that SRM has a huge advantage against the new generation of power meters like PowerTap. These cranks are really good, comparable with stiffness from the best cranks on the market (though they are slightly heavier). A crank is a part of the bike so there is no problem when you e.g. want to put on your new carbon wheels for a special race. The SRM is still there and works properly.

Gold standard
SRM is the gold stand for power meters with very accurate measurement of workload. It’s a high quality product that will not disappoint you.

Why I Would Recommend The SRM Training System Read More »

Review of SRM, Power Tap and Polar

SRM FSA Crank

Kraig Willett has made a comprehensive review of the three most used power meters: SRM, Power Tap and Polar. He explains in details how these power meters measure power output and presents results from his tests. He gives us a very detailed review of how SRM, Power Tap and Polar perform in price, performance, and durability. The review might be a bit difficult to understand for beginners, but it is really worth reading.

Here are some of the points from Kraig Willett:

On how the SRM crank system measures power output
“Instrumenting a mechanical structure allows one to convert the phenomenon of interest into an electrical signal that can be subsequently analyzed, mathematically manipulated, and then displayed to the user. Strain gages do just that in the SRM power measuring device.

The strain gages that SRM uses are nothing more than a piece of foil embedded in a plastic carrier. The resistance of the foil element changes depending on how much it is stretched/strained. The strain gages unique characteristic of changing resistance under strain is what allows the mechanical deflections that naturally occur in the structure to be converted into an electrical voltage signal.”

On accuracy of power meters
“Additionally, it can even be argued that absolute accuracy is not an issue, but rather, consistency over time or measurement repeatability is most important.”

On installing a Power Tab hub
“The Power Tap system is just about as close to ‘Plug and Play’ as one can get. The straightforward steps of installing a cassette and a tire on the wheel built with the Power Tap hub are nothing too difficult for your average bike racer. Once these steps are accomplished, one must simply drop the wheel in the dropouts and install the receiver and CPU mount with the supplied zip ties. The whole process should take 30 minutes at most.”

Read the full review of SRM, Power Tap and Polar

Review of SRM, Power Tap and Polar Read More »

How to training for anaerobic endurance

How to train for anaerobic endurance

I guess all of you have tried this kind of activity on your bike. We are talking about biking at intensities that can only be maintained for a very few minutes or maybe just seconds. These jumps require anaerobic power which can be trained separately in your training program. There are made several tests to measure maximum oxygen uptake in the lab, but unfortunately there are no similar possibility to measure anaerobic power. Thus, we have to develop indirect methods to evaluate anaerobic power. I think that testing with a power meter will be the best evaluation of anaerobic power for most riders. Find your average power output in a 60sec. all-out test.

Lactate is not responsible for fatigue
One of the biggest myths about anaerobic power is that lactate is responsible for the fatigue. Lactate is just a piece of sliced sugar and a couple of studies have shown that lactate itself is not produce fatigue, in fact one of the studies I will present in the future claims that lactate actually protects the muscles from fatigue. There are probably many reasons why we determine exercise at severe intensity.

Read the rest of ‘How to train for anaerobic endurance’ here.

How to train for anaerobic endurance Read More »