I have always been interested in athletics. In high school and college I was a competitive swimmer. Like most people, however, work and family obligations reduced my workouts to a bare minimum. I tried my best to swim or ride my bicycle for an hour or two a few times a week. I was always on a Monday, Wednesday, Friday workout schedule, but I missed a lot of Fridays. I also missed quite a few Mondays and Wednesdays.
I always thought of myself as fit, but the truth was I had slowly put on weight and I was not nearly as fit as I thought I was. When I graduated from college, I weighed 175 lbs. By age 50 I weighed 225 lbs. I am 6’ 4” tall so I never thought of myself as grossly overweight, but the truth is that is difference of 50 lbs!
By age 50, I realized I needed to get serious about losing weight and getting fit. I joined a health club which had both indoor and outdoor 25 meter swimming pools and a nice weight room. I also learned about the Austin Veloway which is located near the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center in south Austin. The Austin Veloway is a scenic, paved 3.2 mile loop where one can ride a bicycle without worrying about traffic.
Interval Training
Swimmers are used to doing laps, so I liked the idea of doing interval training on my bicycle at the Austin Veloway. Interval training alternates periods of near all out effort with periods of easy pedaling for recovery. Each lap of the Veloway took about 9 minutes when I was really pushing myself. I experimented with both short and long intervals.
One of my favorite workouts (long intervals) involved going as hard as I could on every third lap. The other two laps I would ride at my normal pace for recovery. I usually completed three or four sets for a total of 9-12 laps. I worked hard and I was able to significantly reduce my times. I did not lose weight, however, and I could not come close to what the best cyclists could do. I was pleased but not thrilled with my progress.
I checked my progress at the end of each month by timing myself on an all out effort for six laps. My single best performance at the Austin Veloway was a time of 54 minutes for six laps. I was in my mid-fifties at the time. While I was training at the Veloway, I observed a top cyclist who was able to do 12 laps at the Veloway with each and every lap coming in between 8 min. 15 sec. and 8 min. 30 sec. I sat on the bench at the start of the Veloway and timed him with my stopwatch out of curiosity (and admiration). I haven’t returned to the Veloway since I started my bicycle journey, but I doubt if I could go that fast! There are some amazing athletes out there! If you visit Austin, you might want to visit the Austin Veloway and see what you can do! If you beat my time for six laps, please don’t tell me about it! Laugh out loud!
Threshold Training
I have since come to realize that each sport is quite different. Interval training is still huge in swimming, but cycling is a very different sport. Threshold training, in my opinion, is the key to cycling performance.
Anaerobic threshold is the point at which you start to go into oxygen debt. You need to be fully warmed up before you can really tell what is going on. Before you are warmed up, your legs may feel like lead and you may feel out of breath. This is meaningless. Check your anaerobic threshold after about 30 minutes of hard work. It is extremely important to be aware of your anaerobic threshold. I would describe this threshold as being “medium” out of breath. It occurs just beyond the point I would describe as being “slightly” out of breath. I would describe “slightly” out of breath as being about 10% below the anaerobic threshold. Basically, your anaerobic threshold is the point at which you begin to suffer.
I ride six to eight hours a day somewhat out of breath. I try to ride in a zone about 10% below to 10% above my anaerobic threshold. This burns calories like crazy and slowly raises your anaerobic threshold. I had finally discovered a fabulous exercise routine which was virtually guaranteed to cause significant weight loss!
When I began my bicycle journey, my anaerobic threshold occurred when my pulse was about 150 beats per minute. Now, after five years of threshold training, my anaerobic threshold occurs when my heart rate is about 160 beats per minute. As you become more fit, your anaerobic threshold gradually advances towards your maximum heart rate. Your maximum heart rate does not change over time. Each of us is born with this natural set point. My maximum heart rate is about 175 beats per minute.
Every year, the first major climb I encounter on my bicycle route, after leaving Austin, is in the Cumberland Mountains on the way to Sewanee, Tennessee. The first time I climbed these mountains, I would describe the pain level as “agonizing.” By year five, I find the pain level to be almost “normal.” I actually enjoy going off saddle on this climb! I mention this not to brag, but hopefully to inspire.
Other changes include no longer feeling extreme leg fatigue when resuming riding after a long lunch break (this didn’t happen until year five). Also, first thing in the morning, I immediately start riding with my exertion level slightly below my anaerobic threshold. This training zone has become an engrained habit.
I am very surprised that I have not noticed any “plateau” effect in my fitness improvements. Instead, it feels like my anaerobic threshold has increased about 10% each and every year. This means that my anaerobic threshold has increased about 50% in five years!
How To Test Your Anaerobic Threshold
My only objective measurement of my fitness improvements is testing myself on my favorite Austin hills: Red Bud Trail, City Park Road, Spicewood Springs Rd., and Mt. Bonnell Rd. I have been climbing these same hills for forty years! The basic idea is that the maximum weight you are capable of pulling up a certain hill with your road bike is proxy for your anaerobic threshold. You are measuring the maximum amount of sustained work that you are capable of completing. In order to make accurate comparisons, it is important to use the same gear ratio. I use the gear ratio 39/28 for testing purposes.
The Red Bud Trail hill from Lady Bird Lake headed towards the town of Westlake is nice and long. I use this hill as a benchmark. (If you decide to take my favorite Austin bicycle ride, as described at the end of Appendix 1, you will come down this hill towards the end of the ride.) When I arrived in Austin at age 28, I am embarrassed to admit that I usually had to walk my road bike (without a trailer) up the last 50 yards of this hill. For purposes of this analysis, let’s assume that I could have made it to the top of this hill with an all out effort. In that case, the total weight pulled up this hill would have been 200 lbs (me plus the bicycle). In year seven of my bicycle journey, forty years later, I tested myself on this very same hill. With an absolutely all out effort, I was just able to pull my fully loaded trailer up this hill without stopping. This time the total weight was 300 lbs (me plus the bicycle plus the loaded trailer). That is a 50% increase!
Is it reasonable to expect improvements of this magnitude? Before beginning my perpetual bicycle journey, I would have answered, “No, that’s impossible!” Now, I firmly believe that changes of this magnitude are not only possible but likely. In part, this reflects a very out of shape starting point. It also reflects the powerful effects of time. It is those long hours in the saddle, six to eight hours per day, seven days per week, that really make the difference. Incremental change is very powerful!
My route across West Virginia includes five summits. Leading up to each summit is an 8% grade for about 5 miles. On an 8% grade, pulling a 100 lb. trailer, I am going about 6 miles per hour and I’m off the saddle about half the time. My pain level, however, is just above normal. This is what I train for. My muscles are just about maxed out and I am consuming vast amounts of oxygen, but I am not panting. It feels like you have a continuous air flow because your diaphragm muscles are in shape.
Once your anaerobic threshold reaches a certain level you can really count on it. This is why athletes like Michael Phelps, Katie Ledecky, and Chris Froom are so consistent. They have incredibly high anaerobic thresholds and their competitors are more or less doomed!
A Fitness Plan for Bicycle Touring
If you are working to get in shape for bicycle touring, I recommend gradually stretching out your rides to 4-6 hours while maintaining a pace slightly below your anaerobic threshold. Hilly terrain is best. Stop and eat every two hours to avoid bonking. (“Bonking” is cyclist lingo which refers to running out of carbs for fuel.) A handlebar bag is handy for carrying snacks like sandwiches, Clif bars, unsalted nuts, apples, and bananas. I promise you that you will be amazed by the results!
How will you know when you are fit enough to tour comfortably? There are no hard and fast rules, but you should definitely be good to go if you can comfortably ride a road bike (without gear other than a handlebar bag) fifty miles in three hours over moderately hilly terrain. Riding 100 miles in six hours is even more convincing evidence that you will be able to tour comfortably. On the other hand, you can simply get in shape by bicycle touring. That is the method I used. You will plumb the depths of human suffering and then you will emerge on the other side fit as a fiddle!
The Placebo Effect
New drugs are tested for efficacy by using double blind experiments to compare their effects to the effects of a placebo sugar pill. It turns out that the “placebo effect” is so strong that it is extremely difficult to find drugs that are able to out perform the sugar placebo! I was amused to learn that the placebo effect is more pronounced when the sugar pill is large in size! It turns out that many expensive new drugs which have been approved by the Food and Drug Administration, and many of which have dangerous side effects, barely outperform the sugar pill!
Never underestimate the importance of the mind-body connection. After each meal, announce to yourself, very emphatically, “This magnificent meal will nourish and strengthen me!” Similarly, after each workout, announce to yourself, again very emphatically, “This incredible workout will make me strong and fit!” Also, just as a “large” sugar pill has a greater placebo effect than a “small” sugar pill, increase the “size” of your workouts by giving your workouts extravagant names such as “Armageddon,” “Kick Ass,” “Eddie Merckx,” and my personal favorite, the “Don’t Give Me Any Lip” workout! Homo sapiens is not the logical, rational creature one might wish! To the contrary, it turns out we are very emotional, highly suggestable creatures!
Over Training
I was climbing Sherman Pass in the North Cascades when an extremely fit young lady passed me like I was sitting still. Printed across the back of her bicycle shorts were the words “Shut up legs!” What an inspiring display of cycling resolve! Now, following the young lady’s example, I often tell my legs to “Shut up!” whenever my legs start to burn!
Don’t listen to your muscles unless they are hinting at an overuse injury. It is virtually impossible to over train your skeletal muscles. Humans are designed to work hard all day long every day. The caveman didn’t get days off. All that is required for muscle recovery is a good night’s sleep. I have been amazed how I can climb all day and then do it again the next day! After a number of very hard days, however, you may notice an elevated pulse rate and difficulty sleeping. You need to pay attention. When you work really hard your body releases adrenaline and this can affect your sleep. You need to take a rest break. This is one reason why I like to take a week off in my favorite cities. This gives me a nice long recovery when I am experiencing over training.
The rest of the story…
Naturally, when the young lady passed me a few miles before the Sherman Pass summit, I immediately went off saddle and pushed the pedal to the metal! The result? Absolutely nothing happened! Thoroughly chastened, I settled back down on my seat and slowly ground my way to the summit. I tried telling my legs to “Shut up!” but they refused to listen! When I finally arrived at the summit, I was pleased to see that the young lady who had passed me was taking a rest break. Perhaps she needed to rest those titanium thigh muscles!
“Are you all right?” she asked when I pulled up. This was definitely not one of my best moments! Naturally, I replied that I was “Just fine!” even though I was actually half dead! She offered me a handful of gummy bears to help revive me. With a smile, she explained that gummy bears were her secret “super power.” Believe it or not, the gummy bears really seemed to help! Later, along the Oregon coast, I told this story to an incredibly fit, professional wild mushroom hunter that I happened to meet. All smiles when I finished my story, he retrieved his back pack, opened his pack, and showed me his huge stash of gummy bears!
Summary
You are probably thinking that all of this sounds very complicated. Preparing nutritious foods, threshold training, yoga, stretching, core exercises, cross training (swimming, for example), sleep hygiene, and avoiding overuse injuries, the list goes on and on. Can’t all of this be boiled down to a simple formula?
In an interview, Eddie Merckx, perhaps the greatest cyclist of all time, was asked how one becomes a great champion.
“That’s easy,” he replied, “RIDE ALL THE TIME!”
There you have it! Four words that virtually guarantee you will become a formidable cyclist!
Lionhearted Girl
If you are ever feeling sorry for yourself after a challenging bicycle ride, be sure to recall the following story.
As reported in the New York Times article “Lionhearted Girl Bikes Dad Across India, Inspiring a Nation” by Jeffrey Gettleman and Suhasini Raj, a fifteen year old migrant girl in India pedaled seven hundred miles to bring her injured father back to their home village in India during the coronavirus pandemic lock down. The Indian press seized upon this feel-good story with headlines about Jyoti the “lionhearted.”
When it becomes a matter of survival, migrant workers will try to return to their native villages because that is where their real social safety net lies. Scholars estimate that tens of millions have returned to their villages during the 2020 coronavirus pandemic lock down, the biggest migration of human beings since the partition of India and Pakistan in 1947.
Jyoti Kumari and her dad had almost no money and their village was half way across India. Her dad, an out of work rickshaw driver, had been injured in a traffic accident and could barely walk. Jyoti jumped on a $20 purple bike bought with the last of their savings. With her dad perched on the rear, she pedaled from the outskirts of New Delhi to their home village, seven hundred miles away.
“Don’t worry, mummy,” she reassured her mother, using a borrowed cell phone, “I will get Papa home.” Jyoti was confident on a bicycle having ridden a lot in her village. Many days they had little food. They slept at gas stations. They lived off the generosity of strangers. Jyoti said that except for one short lift on a truck, she pedaled nearly one hundred miles per day!
Jyoti got her dad home and was resting up in her village when she received a call from the Cycling Federation of India. Convinced she had the right stuff, Onkar Singh, the federation’s chairman, invited her to New Delhi for a tryout with the national team where she will do a series of cycling tests. Mr. Singh said he had been moved by how far she pedaled with a heavy person on the back. “And luggage,” Mr. Singh was quick to add. One thing was not in doubt, Mr. Singh said, “She has guts.”
The cinematic sweep of Jioti’s difficult journey captivated me. I imagined a movie similar to Danny Broyle’s “Slum Dog Millionaire.” The protagonist is a young girl named Jyoti and the story ends when she wins gold in the women’s road race in the Olympics! Who knows? Maybe it will happen!