Cycling Fitness / Training Advice

ACE vits?

No - this was written by a doctor

Vit A
Vit C
Vit E

The antioxidants everyone thought it was a good idea to take loads of for years...

Oh. Yeah.

everyone

The supplements industry, possibly

Big $$$ = big marketing = mass acceptance

I could never accept your mass.

Wait... So we shouldn't be taking multivitamins? I'm mostly veggie as well, so I take zinc supplements so I don't catch colds CONSTANTLY from my pupils.

Edit: just looked it up. ACE = bad news.

That's the crux of the most recent studies, yeah.

Cod liver oil?

Was fed it as a kid. Horrible stuff. I've read there's some positives but depending on quality, the supplement can be harmful or ineffective . Real food ftw.

I've just got off the phone from NHS 111 because my son decided to eat a few of my multivitamins. He's fine, but it's clearly a sign to bin them.

Does anyone else subscribe to the Friel idea that Form should always be negative in training phases, and only go positive when tapering/racing? Mine has been steadily riding over the past few weeks as I come out of quite a busy summer, and although it felt great dropping all my mates on the 'big climb' today, I don't know if it should all be a bit harder.

I feel uncomfortable when Coach Chad does an emoticon wink at me during TrainerRoad workouts.

I feel uncomfortable knowing there's someone called Coach Chad...

A friend of mine was telling me I should be taking some protein in during fasted workouts.

Usual workout is something like an hour long, with 10 mins warm up and warm down, and 45 mins of sweetspot intervals. I do 2 of these a week, with only a black coffee before hand.

Protein during/after - yay or nay?

edit: I do other workouts too, but just curious about fasted sweetspot intervals particularly.

I've tried it, having also had it recommended to me. Can't say it made a noticeable difference - not to say it doesn't work.

What is the reasoning behind adding protein? It doesn't have an ergogenic effect (like CHO would) and you're then not doing a fasted workout so you're probably messing about with the signalling that supposed to help improve fat oxidisation.

More recommended for longer rides fasted, in some vague attempt to prevent muscle brakedown.
For 1h won't matter.

http://www.gssiweb.org/en/Article/sse-109-is-there-a-need-for-protein-ingestion-during-exercise-

Sweetspot workouts should be hard but not so hard you can't do them for long. The point is to get a lot of work done in a shorter amount of time - bang for buck.
You're probably doing them poorly if you're doing them fasted.

If I was only doing 45min of work then I would probably be doing it harder than sweetspot or it would just be a rest day commute thing and I'd save it for a proper 2-4hr sesssion.

Your drinking sessions are only 2-4h?

I've been hitting my wattage targets during my sweetspot intervals. I do need to do another ftp test soon, though.

Rough plan

1. is 2x fasted sweetspot workouts (1hr each)
   
2. 1x v02 max intervals (1 hr)
   
3. long distance rides at weekend (4-5 hour)
   
4. 1 yoga session per week (1hr)
   
5. 2 core workouts per week (30 mins each)
   
   

That's an ideal week but I figure if I stick to that over the winter, when spring rolls around I'll be in a good position to start churning out long rides more regularly.

Thoughts/comments welcome.

Sack off the fasted ss rides. Just do SS rides well fuelled.

IF you want to fast, for fat utilisation purposes, do it during the long rides. But again, I'd not bother. Just eat and train hard.

If you want to lose weight, stop eating dinner and cut out all wheat.

Are you advising that because fasted SS rides don't work?

I'm already drinking less, eating less shit, but given that I'm planning on doing this for another 10/11 months, making unsustainable dietary changes seems unrealistic, whereas fasted SS turbo sessions are achievable and (in theory) effective.

What are you trying to gain from doing a SS ride fasted?

If the SS turbo rides are 1h, then really they're not fasted, as your body has enough fuel to run for 1h at near max pace. So you're doing them fuelled. Not fueling during them means that when you finish the ride, you'll be empty. So you either eat then or not. You're not going to be causing improved training adaptions. You're not going to be losing weight, becasue you'll be eating after.

If you want to lose weight, cut meal portions when you don't need the energy. Not when you do.