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BPC's Blog

Ready, Set, Ride!

Ali Winslow - Wednesday, March 10, 2010
So it's pretty clear everyone was out on their bike this past weekend.  50-60 degree temperatures in New England don't happen all that often in early March and from reading athlete logs, great quality miles were put in all over Boston.  I spent the weekend moving, so I can't make the same claims on the long rides, tempo efforts or transition practice that I saw on my athletes logs, but I can say that the athletes who took our winter build cycling classes were in fantastic shape to conquer the roads.  Things heard from class participants: "I rode over 60+ miles this weekend!  First time out on the road and I felt great!"

I am happy to report that after 9 years of teaching these indoor cycling classes at Landrys in Boston, our results consistently produce well conditioned cyclists who are more educated about their form, technique, cadence, heart rate and power.  As we close this years winter cycling classes, I look forward to seeing our athletes out on the roads working hard.  Now I just have to fear that we have done our job so well that they beat us in races!

see ya on the roads...

ali
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Training Camp

Vic Brown - Monday, March 08, 2010

I really look forward to this time of year: the weather is warming up and the Multisport World Conference and Expo at MIT is two weeks away which Ali and I are presenting the Strength Training for the Multisport Athlete - it all means the race season is right around the corner. Lastly, it's spring break time at the university. For me, this means some time to catch up on sleep and take advantage of some extra time to train. This week is my training camp and here is how it has started.

FRI: Workout#1 - Swim 5.1K Aerobic intervals. Workout#2 - Brick, Bike 2.5 hrs with a 50' interval at 88-95%, Run 30' transition run
SAT: Workout#1 - Bike 4 hrs with 2 hrs of race pace simulation
SUN: Workout#1 - Brick, Bike 6 hrs including pace line skills practice with Threshold Cycling Team, Run 30' transition run. Workout#2 - Strength Training, Power emphasis followed by a 30' high cadence spin for recovery.
MON: Workout#1 - Swim 4K with a 1650 time trial. Workout#2 - Bike 4 hrs endurance (not including a 30' stop in Concord Center for a muffin and  to talk cycling and training of sorts with Skip Foley?)

It has taken years to learn what my body responds to. And it is volume. Then I will slowly add in small amounts of intensity to give my body another boost in fitness. This week provides a perfect time for me to do it. The key will be to find the right amount of cycling training to mix in with triathlon training as I am spending the first part of the season bike racing and will then transition to triathlon. The second key element will be my recovery methods - really dialing in on recovery nutrition as well as sleep, making sure I get 8-9 hours per night and a 30 min nap if possible at least 2-3 times during the week (can't remember the last time I took one of those). Bottom line, I really enjoy this type of training - the long workouts and challenging your body to see what it can achieve; what can you adapt to, and what can you overcome.

First bike race of the year is slated for March 28 in Marblehead, MA at the Michael Schott Memorial Circuit Race . The triathlon season opens at the Hopkinton Season Opener on May 9.

Get out and train!!!

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Hill Training on the Bike and Run

Ali Winslow - Thursday, March 04, 2010
Bike Class #9 on Thursday night was a Lake Placid "review"

Tough workout, we did some tempo work, which I think is tough on the indoor trainer, maintaining a solid tempo effort at zone 3 is harder than it would seem.  We tend to ride at either zone 2 or zone 4 with a zone 1 recovery.  But 3-4 minutes at tempo builds solid high aerobic efforts, especially taxing on the endurance and thus builds overall muscular endurance.  

I find that athletes in class comment that their legs give out before their heart rate - meaning that they can work at a higher HR, but their legs start failing first.  These hard intervals at a solid zone 3 on the bike work on that failure.

Try it on your own, after a solid warmup, do 3-4 min intervals at zone 3 (using enough resistance, at 90+ rpm)  on 20-30 sec recovery.  It will help you build your overall muscular endurance!

Ali
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Following Recovery Weeks with Intensity

Ali Winslow - Wednesday, March 03, 2010
Well if you were at the Hyannis Marathon, Half Marathon or 10K this past weekend you saw several thousand runners hitting the pavement.  I started in the front of the pack, as I always do for these races to get out of the clutter and get my own pacing started so that I don't need to dodge around people, hop on curbs or risk falling over chatting runners.

But I have to saw, racing back to back weekends is pretty tough.  We had the indoor time trial last weekend and there was quite a bit of intensity work leading up to that event.  Even though the TT itself was only a 10K on the bike, it still requires a ton of concentration and super high HR's.  It's pretty tough in a practice setting to work as hard as you do in a race, and so the indoor TT and this past weekend's 10K and Half Marathon were great opportunities to test your limits.  I don't know about you, but I saw a pretty high HR at the indoor TT, and even though I recovered, it was still lingering in my legs over the following week as I "tapered" my runs and intensity leading up to the half.  And then again, during the half, I saw a fairly higher HR than expected during my run, and I know that at the end I was pretty cooked.

Now this week we are jumping back into intensity.  I watched the faces on our athletes last night as we did 4x 2+min efforts at 103% of vVO2.  That was a tough workout and many of those athletes who raced over the weekend most likely were not hitting their target HR's.  Or, they may have hit their target HR's early on, and then were unable to sustain their power or speed.  However, even though the intensity is tough right now, these athletes are teaching their bodies to deal with the stress and then with adequate recovery periods, come back from the stress and improve their speeds/power.

It's hard to get back on the horse after a race- but when you do and follow your program the rewards are great.  We have one more week left in our build program and then it will be time for our athletes to hit the roads and begin preseason.  

Racing begins in only a few weeks, can't wait to see our results.

Train Hard, Train Smart- 

Ali
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Why should athletes do LT and VO2 work in the build phase of training/

Ali Winslow - Wednesday, February 17, 2010
I spent this past weekend in Boulder Colorado with several other cycling and triathlon coaches.  If you don't know this already, Boulder considers itself the triathlon and endurance training mecca of the world.  At any one group workout you will see top level pro athletes, aspiring age groupers and prior Hawaii IM winners.

What I learned out there was this- athletes need to do their VO2 work and LT work pretty much year round (that is, if they have a solid base of training).  Why not?  

It seems to us New Englanders that in the base period and build phase period (Fall and Winter), we don't need to do these hard efforts.  I have heard time and time again- it's the "off" season, I just need to do base work (low aerobic training).  However, if you don't consistently challenge your energy systems, how will you improve?  How will your VO2 improve if you don't do any VO2 work?  How will your LT improve?

Yes, VO2 efforts and LT efforts are hard.  However, only 20% of your overall run volume and 30% of your overall bike volume (based on weekly workouts) should be at these hard efforts.  When I explained this to our cycling classes, I got alot of surprised looks.  In general most athletes either don't go hard enough or go too hard too often, resulting in mediocre workouts most of the time, they don't improve, they don't see results and get either overtrained or are sick all of the time.  If you look at your weekly volume in minutes or hours, take 20% of that overall time (for running) and 30% of the overall time (for cycling) and that's the amount of time you can spend in VO2/LT effort.  For swimming it's about 50%.  The rest of the workouts should be dedicated to technique work, etc.  If you are finding that you are doing too much or not enough, change your workouts to follow the above protocols.  You will find that you are getting more out of your workouts, you will be able to go hard when the workout dictates and you will enjoy your recovery and technique work.

Ali 
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Why are VO2 intervals important and how to make them part of your program

Ali Winslow - Wednesday, January 20, 2010
What is your motivation to get yourself going in the off season?  Why do you get on the trainer to ride, or run outside in the zero degree temps, get in a pool at 6am, or do your hard strength workouts in a busy gym?

It's motivation.  It's the knowledge that your competition is out there, probably doing the same or more than you right at that very moment.  And it's this same kind of motivation that pushes us to do the hard work, the VO2 intervals that burn out our legs and lungs.  A coach can write the best program for his or her athletes, but if they lack the motivation, then the cornerstone of the program is lost on the athlete.

Has this inspired you to keep on reading?  Do you know what these VO2 intervals are?  Well, the definition of VO2 is the maximal oxygen consumption that you have.  We test it on the New Leaf Machine, we test it out of the lab in a "field" setting and we test it weekly with our workouts.  

This week our cycling workouts focused on a :40/:20 on/off maximal power/velocity efforts for our main set.  This means we worked our athletes on the short but very high intensity interval at 103% of their vVO2.  I coached the athletes to focus on the amount of power they could generate from each pedal stroke, rather than worry about how fast their legs were pedaling.  And this workout hurts.  A lot.  If you are doing these correctly, your leg muscles burn, your lungs will burn and you certainly don't get enough recovery time to even relax and shake it out.   However, due to the short duration of the interval, the body will not feel nearly as taxed as you would if we were doing 20minute efforts.

However, after a few weeks of these types of intervals (we manipulate time and recovery time each week) athletes will see fantastic results.  Not only will they increase their maximal power, but their overall fitness improves as well as their mental strength.  

Now get yourself out there and stay motivated.

Ali
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Build Period in Full Swing

Ali Winslow - Wednesday, January 06, 2010
Well last night everyone's new years resolutions were firing on all pistons!  30+ people in our first winter cycling class.  They were packed in tight, trainer to trainer, heart rate monitors on, cycling computers working, heads in the game.  The BPC cycling class last night-and this morning were filled with determined athletes and great energy.
It's always fun to see old faces and new faces in these classes and from my perspective, the best part of last night was the new workout formats.  I love to change things up on clients and athletes-keep them on their toes and keep them focused on learning new things.  I will tell you, we did get some resistance at first, but I truly believe with this new program athletes will learn to be more proactive in their own cycling workouts which will eventually translate to better overall fitness and most importantly, awareness of what they can do.

Last nights and todays workouts were a test of endurance, determination and current fitness with the vVO2 test.  This test comes from the work of Billat and helps the athletes to learn their velocity at VO2 max or their wattage at VO2 max.  Now with this data, the athlete can do specific intervals at a percentage of their vVO2, giving them clear feedback on performance.  

I am looking forward to the next 10 weeks to see the progress and development of these cyclists and triathletes.  This is going to be a tough 10 weeks of training, but it will all pay off in March.

See ya there.

Ali
P.S. If you really want a treat, check out our pictures on the next newsletter of Vic aka "Johnny G Spin Man"
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Cycling indoors 101

Ali Winslow - Thursday, December 03, 2009
I laugh when I think about class on Wednesday morning this week.  It's 5:55am, there are a few quiet athletes roaming around Landry's and I am running around frantically getting everything set up so that we can start promptly at 6am.

At 5:58am the few stragglers turn into 14 aspiring and motivated athletes.  The quiet morning is now churning with loud college music (thanks Borges), my "loud" voice talking through the workout and 14 pairs of eyes trying to stay open and focused on the tiny print that is the workout of the week.

Brr...it's barely 30 degrees out, it's nice and warm in our beds at this lovely hour, so why do we get up, especially in the "off" season and subject ourselves to tortuous workouts, with someone telling us what to do, and try to focus on our "goals?"

Well- I will tell you why.  Because at the end of the day, at the end of each workout, you can check it off your list.  We are multisport athletes, cyclists, runners and swimmers- we are super Type A, super motivated and always have to have something to focus on.  Why do we do these group workouts?  Because they are motivating, but most importantly they are specific coached workouts, each with a purpose and that purpose keeps us on task.  

So, if you are feeling a bit lackluster right now in your training, if you are wondering why are you doing this?  Come on out on a Tuesday night, or Wednesday morning to cycling class and see what the fuss is all about.  If you dare....

Ali
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Cycling indoors 101

Ali Winslow - Thursday, December 03, 2009
I laugh when I think about class on Wednesday morning this week.  It's 5:55am, there are a few quiet athletes roaming around Landry's and I am running around frantically getting everything set up so that we can start promptly at 6am.

At 5:58am the few stragglers turn into 14 aspiring and motivated athletes.  The quiet morning is now churning with loud college music (thanks Borges), my "loud" voice talking through the workout and 14 pairs of eyes trying to stay open and focused on the tiny print that is the workout of the week.

Brr...it's barely 30 degrees out, it's nice and warm in our beds at this lovely hour, so why do we get up, especially in the "off" season and subject ourselves to tortuous workouts, with someone telling us what to do, and try to focus on our "goals?"

Well- I will tell you why.  Because at the end of the day, at the end of each workout, you can check it off your list.  We are multisport athletes, cyclists, runners and swimmers- we are super Type A, super motivated and always have to have something to focus on.  Why do we do these group workouts?  Because they are motivating, but most importantly they are specific coached workouts, each with a purpose and that purpose keeps us on task.  

So, if you are feeling a bit lackluster right now in your training, if you are wondering why are you doing this?  Come on out on a Tuesday night, or Wednesday morning to cycling class and see what the fuss is all about.  If you dare....

Ali
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Cycling Efficiency: Single Leg Drill

Vic Brown - Wednesday, November 25, 2009
Our fall base period group training cycling class has been aimed at improving endurance, strength, and efficiency.  Isolated leg training using single leg drills have been a staple in our programming.  Elite Level USA Cycling Coach  Thomas Chapple who has worked with Joe Friel's UltraFit.com discusses single leg pedaling.  To perform the single leg drill, unclip one leg and pedal with the other leg only keeping the cadence between 60 and 70 rpm.  We begin with work intervals of 30 seconds per leg and building to 1 minute of work.  The goal of this drill is to teach your legs to make smooth full circles, eliminating the dead spots by concentrating on both the pull through the bottom of the stroke and the lift back over top.  If you are working with a power meter, make sure power output is evenly balanced between both the left and right legs.
-Coach Vic Brown
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