March 2010 Archives

Most endurance athletes think in terms of fueling primarily with carbohydrates, whether complex or simple, whether sourced from grains, fruits, veggies or plain old sugar; when most coaches and athletes think about fuel, they think first about carb intake. That doesn't mean we don't value fat as a fuel, I think most endurance athletes understand that training and racing for periods longer than a couple of hours can only be accomplished because our bodies source substantial energy from burning fat stores, but we tend to think in terms of 'sparing glycogen' more than 'metabolizing fat'.

At shorter distances and in competitions lasting 2 hours or less this may indeed be the entire story. Trained athletes typically store enough carbohydrate (in the form of glycogen) in the musculature and liver to sustain about 90 minutes of activity at high output, and certainly, the highest-output efforts -- sprinting, hill climbing, taking your turn at the head of the pace-line, etc can only be fueled by going into anaerobic (i.e. burning glycogen) output zones. We are mostly also well versed in how to fuel to restore glycogen reserves, and how to do so rapidly for days with multiple scheduled workouts.

Take-away: -- It is possible to train the body to burn fat stores at 70% effort levels this is aided by increasing intake of (healthy) fats

Riding a bike without hands on the bars is illegal so you shouldn't do it ... I say the Man can stick it, there are good reasons and times when you want to ride with hands-off the bars.

Safety-tip Don't try or practice this on a bike that's not in good alignment, in or around traffic in high winds or a crosswind, on rough road surfaces, or riding in close-quarters with a group!

Here are some reasons to ride hands-off:

• Opening the hip angle and fully shifting weight to sit-bones will ease fatigue
• fully straightening the spine will ease fatigue
• You can add/remove gloves, open energy bars etc
• You can eat/drink more comfortably
• You can take in the surroundings

Writing to thank everyone who came to my booth to talk about bikes today. I enjoyed meeting lots of folks as well as seeing many friends and teammates.

Sincerely -- forrest