Re: Training Qs: intervals, blowing up, fat...

"Ryan Cousineau" <rcousine@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in message 
news:rcousine-BCAB86.20071312052008@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>I have two goals right now:
>
> -Lose a huge amount of weight
> -up the wattage
>
> I'm mostly interested in sprint bursts of power, since every race I 
> ever
> won, I won from a sprint, and this Fall I'll probably start riding 
> track.
>
> Conversely, I really, really like CX, so I wouldn't want to throw my
> 30-minute power under a bus, and while I don't care either way about
> TTs, I always seem to enjoy them while I'm actually doing them (I
> realize that may mean I'm doing it wrong).
>
> So, this year's strategy could be summarized as:
>
> -goal-wise, I'm throwing long races and hill climbs under a bus. If 
> they
> help my training, fine, but it's going to be a long time before my 
> body
> composition makes me look like a climber*.
>
> -I wouldn't mind doing well in crits, but as far as I'm concerned, the
> whole purpose of road season this year is to get me back into race
> shape. If I come good for some of the August crits, fine. If not, CX
> season is soon enough.
>
> Given that like all fatty masters, I have limited time (that beer 
> won't
> drink itself, you know), my current plan is to strive for 2-3 serious
> training sessions per week, plus as much high-HR work as I can manage 
> on
> my commute (which, bizarrely, consists of four 15-minute rides a day: 
> I
> go home for lunch).
>
> Here's a typical training, er, plan:
>
> -multi-modal commute halfway across town, 25ish km in multiple 
> sections.
> Because of the hills and the timing, I have to ride faster than slow 
> to
> get to the crit on time.
> -yes, crit: ride Cat 4 crit until I explode spectacularly, and then 
> keep
> riding until I get lapped or show signs of endangering the sprint.
> -ride home in a very screwed-up state, probably have to stop for a
> drink. This ride reverses the commute, but the hills are more 
> favorable.
>
> The goal is to do a fairly long ride that will burn fat, but to throw
> enough high-HR riding in that I build power. Is it dumb to combine 
> these
> activities? Is it dumber than not doing one or the other at all?
>
> I'm certainly in such a state, physically, right now that any serious
> riding is likely to help, but I don't want to be doing some sort of
> ridiculous physiological suicide that will be totally 
> counterproductive
> (as, for example, I suspect long rides at 25 km/h would be. Junk miles
> ho!)
>
> I will also try to pack in a few dedicated sessions of riding hard,
> 60-90s intervals uphill (3 sets of 3 to start), since that has
> historically made me strong fast.
>
> If the biggest result from my training is that I lose 25 pounds and
> maintain some semblance of current power, I will be highly competitive
> in the local crits, and should shoot up the CX results as if I was
> experimenting with The **** That Will Kill Them.
>
> Finally, are my training goals ridiculous? Am I sabotaging the CX 
> season
> with my devotion to intervals, when I should just work on hour-power 
> or
> something? Is training for both CX and sprinting purely hopeless? I
> don't see a lot of peloton-ing happening at the front end of local "B"
> CX races, but then I don't see a lot of the front of those races, 
> period.
>
> Thanks for any suggestions, even the funny ones.
>
> *will never happen.

Losing weight is, for most people, 90% about diet.  It sounds like 
you're getting plenty of exercise already.  Most people find some sort 
of resistance training (read: lifting weights) helps.  The conventional 
wisdom about dieting is, IMHO, severely lacking these days.  Google 
"Warrior Diet" and "Intermittent Fasting" to see what I have found works 
for me, my wife, and lots of other folks, too.  I have always been 
basically thin and I eat this way because I prefer it, not because I 
have to for reasons of body composition.

In short, eat less, and find heavy objects and move them - in addition 
to continuing to ride your bike.

-S-
http://www.kbnj.com