Having the ability to burst into a higher speed to chase and/or drop a rider is no doubt a great feeling.
It’s a happy jolt when we call upon the body to power up with a burst of acceleration – and our reserve power, the gas in our tank, is right there, at the ready, answering the call.
The flip side of that, and we’ve all had this feeling, is when we call upon ourselves to step it up… and we find out pretty quickly that we don’t have it. Just not there.
But chances are it probably won’t be there if we don’t have reserve energy from enough pre-ride sleep and rest, and from using our energy efficiently – by not wasting any -- while riding. Having needed rest is huge, because even if we know how to ride efficiently and conserve energy on a ride, if that energy level is too low to begin with, those techniques aren’t going to help much.
Energy conservation pays off
But after being fit and well rested for a ride, one of the biggest ways to keep from needlessly burning up energy, says at least one cycling coach, is to keep low in the saddle, down in the drops. There we can ride faster with the same pedaling effort against higher wind resistance.
That’s something we all pretty much get, but can sometimes forget. Sitting on the bike only slightly bent forward, but still nearly upright, is going to make the upper body a sail. Pedaling like that, we drain extra energy by pushing against high levels of wind drag that are minimized when we’re crouched low over the drops.
I tend not to ride low for extended miles, however, because sometimes the old psoas muscles in my lower back lock into that position if I don’t occasionally shift around in my saddle. One time while trying for an extra fast time on a long ride, I stayed low in the drops and pedaled hard all the way to the finish. As I pulled up to brake and punch in my time, my back muscles locked up. They didn’t really want to relax enough to let me sit upright without, hey, pain!
So, sure, I got a fast time probably because I was very aerodynamic through most of the 51-mile ride. But my back muscles rebelled enough to make me think about not doing that again! It took several days of stretching routines to relieve the back muscle tension.
Mind you, this may not be a problem for riders with no back spasm histories like I’ve had. You’ll definitely ride faster if you stay low in the saddle. For me, though, it’s a good idea to move to various positions in the saddle for short periods to keep the back muscles loose, even if it does slow me down a bit. Because a tight, stiff back pretty much has to be relaxed through a bit of physical therapy over a few days before the back is happy enough to ride again.
Efficient pedaling is another way to conserve energy, say the video coaches. And that, I have learned, includes keeping mindful of your toe position on the backside upswing of each pedal stroke. When we drop our heels on the backstroke, we lose momentum, disengage our lower leg muscles and waste energy. To keep that momentum on the upswing, we keep the heel up slightly and the toe down. That keeps the lower leg muscles engaged through the backstroke and boosts the down-pedal power of the opposite leg.
Sometimes when I’ve been desperate to power up with my pedaling, I’ve actually pulled up on the backstroke, which seemed to strain the ligaments connected to my knees. So I stopped doing that!
Other (sometimes) available energy savers
Other riders as well as wind can also help conserve a rider’s energy. When I’m tired and get passed by another rider, I try to catch his or her wheel and draft off of them to give myself a rest while maintaining a higher speed. Or, I can save energy while a tailwind pushes me at a nice clip.
Til next time, remember to pull on a helmet every time you get on the bike. Then keep the rubber side down, ride safely, and don't forget: Have a blast.
-- Mark Eric Larson
Saturday, December 12, 2015
Saturday, December 5, 2015
How to tap into the energy within? Other riders
In the past few months since I’ve been at a grocery store job that requires a lot of walking, stocking shelves, lifting heavy boxes and kneeling on the floor, my bike rides times have slowed a bit.
Also during that period, the weather has turned to biting cold. On one ride the average air temp was 44.8 degrees. Add in the wind chill from riding, and it had to be around 39 degrees at most. Ooooph, yep, that’s cold on the bike.
Both factors have worked to lower my energy levels when I go out on my stay-fit, 51-mile ride. It’s a subject I chatted up with another rider recently while at a turnaround rest stop. He noticed his times have slowed recently and it bothered him. Both of us are older guys, and to be sure, both of us don’t like the notion that age may be slowing us down.
“Well, the air’s heavier,” he said, recounting that his usual fast times are in summer when the air is dry and light – less resistance.
But for me, it’s a combination of some leg fatigue from work, cold heavy air, and ultimately less willpower to push for speed.
That’s the interesting part for me. Because if I have the will power to push for speed, I’ll ride faster. The question is, how much is slower riding a physical lacking of pedal power, and how much of it is plain old mental fatigue. When you don’t have the will to whip the horse, you’ll never know if you have the reserve energy to up the pace!
My conclusion is it’s a mental thing to unleash physical energy that you have, but you haven’t tapped into. The key here is the mindset when you ride solo in tough conditions. It’s a whole lot harder to push for up-tempo speed when you ride solo. Like a lone breakaway rider from the pro peloton, your all-alone mental/physical energy level is all you have. You’re essentially stranded on an island with no help. But when you’re prodded by other faster riders, the willpower to push the pace is easy and energy reserves come up from within. You feed off the energy of other riders, and get a boost.
This week I found that out, in spades.
My buddy John and I rode together and each of us pushed the pace, especially him. He finished the first 14.5 mile split at about a 19 mph-plus average speed, and because I was influenced by trying to catch up to him, I came across the end of the split about a minute behind him, getting an 18.5 mph average. I hadn’t had the energy to get a pace anywhere near that fast on several previous solo rides in the cold. I think I was doing around 17 mph average or less for the split riding solo.
And on the return ride through the same 14.5-mile split, the last long leg of the 51-mile ride, we got some help from another rider, who drafted us going 20 mph for several miles. The guy peeled off on a crossing road, and at that point, John and I were primed at keeping the 20 mph pace we’d been pedaling with relative ease. We were rested from drafting the other rider, and we powered through the split, getting a pretty damn fast 19.8 mph average.
That was done in mid-50 degree air temp, and is a speed I’ve only been able to get solo in warm, dry air conditions.
So, with help, I fed off the energy of my buddy John and the other rider, and got the higher speed. If it had been a solo ride, though, I’m positive I wouldn’t have been able to muster the will power to push the pace to close to a 20-mph average.
It’s kinda weird. The energy gets shared and pulled out of you by other fast riders. But bottom line is, I had the internal energy to draw upon and connect. I just needed the shared energy of other riders to bump up my speed higher than on a solo ride. On a solo ride, even if the energy is there, and I think it is, if there’s not a mental command to power up – and if you’re cold and a bit tired, that can be difficult – you’re almost sure to ride at a slower pace than you’re capable of riding. Yep, it’s weird!
Should I stay or should I go?
If while on a ride, you get caught in the rain what do you do? Look for a nearby sheltered area and stop, figuring it makes sense to wait until the rain passes through? Or do you just hang in there and keep riding?
I’ve done both. Once on a mountain bike ride at Lake Tahoe, it started raining hard, so me and buddy Marc stopped under a rock ledge to wait it out. But, there was a downside: It was cold just standing there, and it seemed to get colder the longer we stood. It lasted about 15 minutes, then we rode on, trying to warm up by pedaling harder.
Another time Marc and I got caught in a hailstorm coming down a mountain on road bikes. He pulled over, and got off the bike, and went under a big tree canopy. I decided to keep riding. I just wanted to ride through it, and figured it would be even more cold to stop and stand waiting for whatever time it might take the hail to pass through. I rode on, my hands and feet immediately numbed in the 30 degree air temp. But eventually the hail stopped, and the clouds pushed through, and the sun even came out. While it was very chilly staying on the bike through it all, I was glad to ride out of it and shorten my time in it.
I vote for keeping on the bike when caught in the rain. Don’t stop, power through. Rider buddy John agrees. We both have the theory that even if you get drenched and chilled to the bone by staying on the bike, you’ll be back home and warmed up sooner than if you get off the bike and freeze waiting for the rain to stop!
Til next time, remember to pull on a helmet every time you get on the bike. Then, keep the rubber side down, ride safely, and don’t forget: Have a blast.
-- Mark Eric Larson
Also during that period, the weather has turned to biting cold. On one ride the average air temp was 44.8 degrees. Add in the wind chill from riding, and it had to be around 39 degrees at most. Ooooph, yep, that’s cold on the bike.
Both factors have worked to lower my energy levels when I go out on my stay-fit, 51-mile ride. It’s a subject I chatted up with another rider recently while at a turnaround rest stop. He noticed his times have slowed recently and it bothered him. Both of us are older guys, and to be sure, both of us don’t like the notion that age may be slowing us down.
“Well, the air’s heavier,” he said, recounting that his usual fast times are in summer when the air is dry and light – less resistance.
But for me, it’s a combination of some leg fatigue from work, cold heavy air, and ultimately less willpower to push for speed.
That’s the interesting part for me. Because if I have the will power to push for speed, I’ll ride faster. The question is, how much is slower riding a physical lacking of pedal power, and how much of it is plain old mental fatigue. When you don’t have the will to whip the horse, you’ll never know if you have the reserve energy to up the pace!
My conclusion is it’s a mental thing to unleash physical energy that you have, but you haven’t tapped into. The key here is the mindset when you ride solo in tough conditions. It’s a whole lot harder to push for up-tempo speed when you ride solo. Like a lone breakaway rider from the pro peloton, your all-alone mental/physical energy level is all you have. You’re essentially stranded on an island with no help. But when you’re prodded by other faster riders, the willpower to push the pace is easy and energy reserves come up from within. You feed off the energy of other riders, and get a boost.
This week I found that out, in spades.
My buddy John and I rode together and each of us pushed the pace, especially him. He finished the first 14.5 mile split at about a 19 mph-plus average speed, and because I was influenced by trying to catch up to him, I came across the end of the split about a minute behind him, getting an 18.5 mph average. I hadn’t had the energy to get a pace anywhere near that fast on several previous solo rides in the cold. I think I was doing around 17 mph average or less for the split riding solo.
And on the return ride through the same 14.5-mile split, the last long leg of the 51-mile ride, we got some help from another rider, who drafted us going 20 mph for several miles. The guy peeled off on a crossing road, and at that point, John and I were primed at keeping the 20 mph pace we’d been pedaling with relative ease. We were rested from drafting the other rider, and we powered through the split, getting a pretty damn fast 19.8 mph average.
That was done in mid-50 degree air temp, and is a speed I’ve only been able to get solo in warm, dry air conditions.
So, with help, I fed off the energy of my buddy John and the other rider, and got the higher speed. If it had been a solo ride, though, I’m positive I wouldn’t have been able to muster the will power to push the pace to close to a 20-mph average.
It’s kinda weird. The energy gets shared and pulled out of you by other fast riders. But bottom line is, I had the internal energy to draw upon and connect. I just needed the shared energy of other riders to bump up my speed higher than on a solo ride. On a solo ride, even if the energy is there, and I think it is, if there’s not a mental command to power up – and if you’re cold and a bit tired, that can be difficult – you’re almost sure to ride at a slower pace than you’re capable of riding. Yep, it’s weird!
Should I stay or should I go?
If while on a ride, you get caught in the rain what do you do? Look for a nearby sheltered area and stop, figuring it makes sense to wait until the rain passes through? Or do you just hang in there and keep riding?
I’ve done both. Once on a mountain bike ride at Lake Tahoe, it started raining hard, so me and buddy Marc stopped under a rock ledge to wait it out. But, there was a downside: It was cold just standing there, and it seemed to get colder the longer we stood. It lasted about 15 minutes, then we rode on, trying to warm up by pedaling harder.
Another time Marc and I got caught in a hailstorm coming down a mountain on road bikes. He pulled over, and got off the bike, and went under a big tree canopy. I decided to keep riding. I just wanted to ride through it, and figured it would be even more cold to stop and stand waiting for whatever time it might take the hail to pass through. I rode on, my hands and feet immediately numbed in the 30 degree air temp. But eventually the hail stopped, and the clouds pushed through, and the sun even came out. While it was very chilly staying on the bike through it all, I was glad to ride out of it and shorten my time in it.
I vote for keeping on the bike when caught in the rain. Don’t stop, power through. Rider buddy John agrees. We both have the theory that even if you get drenched and chilled to the bone by staying on the bike, you’ll be back home and warmed up sooner than if you get off the bike and freeze waiting for the rain to stop!
Til next time, remember to pull on a helmet every time you get on the bike. Then, keep the rubber side down, ride safely, and don’t forget: Have a blast.
-- Mark Eric Larson
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