I’m working home-office for about 3 years now. Since then I train >15h/weej
HOwever, before that I commuted a lot. 50 miles one-way. I employed several strategies:
Commute by car, back by bike. Next day bike in, car out.
Commute in/out by bike
Morning: first 30/40miles by car. Leave it on a commuter parking space. Go the remainder by bike. In the afternoon I would take a longer route back to the car. This was something I did often in winter. And winter can be miserable here.
Please keep in mind this is a flat route and flat routes lend themselves to a different type of riding – a constant tempo for long stretches of time. Trust me, the lack of climbing does not mean happy legs at the end of your journey. =)
helps when the ride leader does a hard group ride (100 miles / 10,000’ climbing) the day before
To your point, it takes some real discipline to not chase rabbits or do hero pulls on group rides… if you check your ego and are prepared to drop off the back occasionally it is possible to get some good base miles on a long weekend group ride. Its just a whole lot easier to do it on solo rides
sounds fun! I’ve only got about 10 minutes of gravel out-the-door, and no cross/gravel bike Someday I’ll have a gravel bike, would love to do Rebecca’s Private Idaho
Winter is coming indeed! So my preseason consists of two phases: adaptation then base.
Adaptation (October and Nov) will be:
Swims: 3 swims a week right now as two technique focuses, 1 technique endurance
Bike: 1 sweet spot (building up the time), 1 intensity (alternating threshold and VO2 each week), 1 long (building up to 4 hours and starting to include some intensity so sweet spot, low gear work, threshold or above then tempo, etc), 3 aerobic so targeting that 65-75% range with some high cadence sprinting in the mix too.
Run: 3 aerobic runs, 1 long run, 1 hill, 1 tempo
Base (December-March) will be:
Swims: 3 swims a week 1 technique, 2 endurance+speed
Bike: 2 sweet spot (building up the time), 1 intensity (alternating threshold and VO2 each week), 1 long with some intervals of some sort thrown in), 2 aerobic so targeting that 65-75% range with some high cadence sprinting in the mix too.
Run: 3 aerobic runs but longer, 1 long run with tempo, 1 hill or speed, 1 threshold,
I am hoping that sets me up nicely for the build from April and May, then race-specific in June and July.
But to quote Mike Tyson, everyone has a plan until you get punched in the face.
The first week is done and seems very manageable so onwards and upwards.
Still working on my dilemma, want to work my fat ox capabilities, do not want to go fasted/low (bone health … and I admit, for fun reasons).
Found a potential solution, have to dig further. I’m surprised this 2002 study has not gotten more resonance. It gets cited a lot but for other aspects. Not the one I’m interested in. Really surprised by the high carb content of the mixed variant. Does glucagon really counter the fat ox inhibiting effect of insulin?
This is great study, really great. Setup, discussion. Really well rounded.
Sorry if this is a hijak, but this will be my first full offseason of structured training, and I see all this discussion of lower intensity only and/or taking an off time, but is there anything wrong with just repeating TR high volume SSB 1-2 a couple of times? I kind of thrive on the repetitiveness of the trainer (I really should ride outside more, but oh well). I’m not very experienced with the whole training load thing, and that’s one of the things I really like about TR, it kind of takes some of that out of the picture and lets me work.
But, I raced a lot last year and I plan on racing even more in 2020, and I really don’t want to get to February and feel burned out or something. Have people had issues just repeating whichever TR base plan they are using?
I must admit I’ve only skimmed the text, too late for studying. Care to elaborate how would you want to incorporate the findings (and which ones, performance was not different) into your base training? And what variant do you call mixed?
I skimmed the study and for me it reinforced the idea that glycogen is a primary fuel and will inhibit fat oxidation. In other words, for a low-intensity morning ride my takeaway is eat a high fat or high protein breakfast and the body will not interfere with burning fat as fuel. Similarly, Coach Chad once said on a podcast that for fasted rides you want black coffee or full cream (no milk or half-n-half as the sugar will tell your body to prefer burning glycogen as fuel).
The lack of any impact on performance just brings me back to the conclusion shared by many elite coaches, that there is a significant genetic factor in optimal fueling. That being the case, fuel for the work, specific to the goals of the workouts and your optimal performance.
In my experience, getting more aerobically fit greatly reduces my fueling needs at lower intensities, all the way up to sweet spot. After a winter of endless sweetspot and tempo work last year I could ride at .80+ IF all day and eat next to nothing of carbs. Threshold and VO2 work is a different story.
Obsessing over fat/carb fueling is truly a last 1% type of gain, and I would wager most amateurs would do well to fuel however they need to train more consistently in order to reach their fitness goals.
I’m not interested in the performance aspect of the study (which is actually the only aspect why the study gets cited by others). I’m interested in the effect of pre-exercise meal composition on fat ox since I want to train the latter.
High protein = mixed, they use both terms in the text. “Mixed” seems more appropriate when looking at the carb content. I find this quite significant. Despite this (relatively) high carb content and a subsequent rise in insulin fat ox does not get shot down (that much). Almost seems as one could have the best of both worlds.
Unfortunately, this seems to be the only study looking into this. And even with trainied subjects.
Spent all day Saturday workout in the backyard, listening to Sebastian Weber and Dan Lorang interviews on Scientific Triathlon podcast. Just parroting what I heard, no dog in this fight. Here ya go:
Agree with @Tanner1280 that there is likely a big genetic factor in fueling. I’d add another factor, whatever you are used to eating, your body will adapt to it, by finding the right gut bacteria. I would even guess that both influence each other, your genetics play a role in the bacteria you have, as does your diet and emvironmental factors. Thus personal experimentation is important. (The other side of this is, maybe thats why there are so many conflicting studies, the underlying factors like genetics and gut biome are not controlled.)
And I can’t get on board with this idea that even a spoonful of sugar or half a banana or a slice of bread will inhibit fat ox. It might send a confusing signal, but most things in nature don’t just switch on or off like that.
That’s my controversial, unsupported post of the day!
Someday I’ll have a gravel bike, would love to do Rebecca’s Private Idaho 
