Welcome to GFNY GRUPPO, a channel made to bring to you all the news about the GFNY world.
Bienvenidos a GFNY GRUPPO, un canal para mostrarles todo el mundo de GFNY.
In this week’s edition of the Training Guide, GFNY Coach Christian discusses whether or not you should program rest weeks into your training plan.
Before we start, it’s important to discuss some definitions. Athletes often think of rest weeks and de-load weeks as being interchangeable. However, in my opinion, they are very different things.
A rest week is just that: a week solid of rest or very easy training. On one hand, it can give the body a big break from the stress of training. On the other hand, after a week of rest or near-rest, detraining will already take a major chunk out of your fitness.
A de-load week is simply a small reduction in training volume and intensity. Perhaps 70% of the volume and intensity of your hardest week of training during that particular training cycle is a good number for a de-load week.
A de-load week can also be accomplished in several ways. One way would be to apply that 70% factor across the whole training week: reduce volume and intensity of all workouts across the week.
Another way is to simply take a few rest days, followed by normal training. My favorite way to do this is simple: take Monday and Tuesday totally off, ride easy on Wednesday to wake the body up a bit, and get back to normal training on Thursday. So while the volume will be down for the week, it’s really three days of rest vs an entire week of rest. This can be ideal to recover from a big week of training: a training camp; a holiday weekend full of long rides; or just a big-time overload week.
I always cringe when I see amateur athletes taking very easy weeks or full rest weeks on a routine basis. In my opinion, there’s no reason an athlete should have to take rest weeks through the course of a season.
After seven days of rest or easy riding, detraining is already occurring. Athletes who take frequent rest weeks often note feeling flat, stale and unfit the week following their rest week.
Also, most athletes aren’t doing enough damage to truly need frequent rest weeks. Adhering to the common 3 week on/1 week cycle of training, where the 4th week is a rest week, will simply lead to under-training for most people.
There’s a few exceptions:
-At the end of the season. Taking a rest week, or even two or three, is a good idea at the end of a long season.
-Mid-season if you have a very long season. If, say, you have a goal event in May, and another in September, taking a rest week right after your event in May can be a good re-set before beginning to train again for your event in September.
De-load weeks are far more useful, and should be far more frequent, than rest weeks. Whereas a rest week will leave you lethargic and under-trained, a deload week should leave you fresh, sharp, and motivated.
However, I still see athletes overuse de-load weeks. For example, the traditional 3 weeks on/1 week ‘off’ format can work well when we use the 4th week as a de-load week and not a pure rest week. However, I don’t think this is necessary for athletes training at low volume. If your big weeks are less than around 14 hours a week of training, I don’t suggest taking a de-load week after every 3 weeks of training.
That doesn’t mean to never take deload weeks, it just means to take them when you need them: after a training camp or long weekend of riding as we mentioned above, during a period that life has you slammed and you’re extremely busy with work/family/off-the-bike things, or after a race.
For athletes who are training with high volume, then taking a de-load week after 3-4 weeks of hard training can be a good way to freshen your legs and guard against overtraining.
Another reason I don’t plan deload or rest weeks often for amateur athletes is that life often intervenes and provides unplanned rest anyway.
Work trips and vacations often provide rest throughout the season.
On the other hand, life stress can come up and force me, as a coach, to plan some rest if I know the athlete is stressed, busy, or not sleeping enough.
For that reason, I rarely pre-plan deload or rest weeks with busy athletes, and instead adapt on the fly when I see signs they might need some rest. If you’re a self-coached athlete, I suggest you try to do the same.
Welcome to GFNY GRUPPO, a channel made to bring to you all the news about the GFNY world.
Bienvenidos a GFNY GRUPPO, un canal para mostrarles todo el mundo de GFNY.
The final GFNY Training Center Podcast of January was a doozy: a long episode cut into several parts.
First, we tackle some mailbag questions, including eating late at night after training, and combining training with time restricted eating/intermittent fasting.
Then, Chris checks in with Coach Christian to share his own success with some of the ideas talked about during the last episodes of the Training Center Podcast, including renovating his nutrition plan to fuel better during and post-ride. Listen here to Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3.
There’s also a special edition of the Training Center Podcast, which is an instructional to go along with the GFNY Coaching 5-Day Nutrition Challenge we ran last week. If you missed the 5-Day Challenge last week you can still follow along now, by listening to the podcast and heading to the 5-Day Challenge page on the GFNY Coaching site.
And remember that you can find the GFNY Training Center Podcast, and all editions of GFNY Daily Coffee Podcast, in a variety of locations.
In this week’s Training Guide, GFNY Coach Christian talks about the benefits of planning hydration and nutrition to minimize or eliminate stops.
All GFNY events offer fully-stocked aid stations, where you can refill water bottles, grab food, and take a moment to recharge.
However, if you’re battling for the front group and racing hard, you may find your competition isn’t going to stop at many or any aid stations, and instead will speed by. If you aren’t prepared to last the entire race, you’ll be put in a tough dilemma: stop and refuel, yet lose the lead peloton (you won’t make it back!). Or, continue on, risking a bonk or dehydration because you don’t have enough fuel to last the entire race.
Either way, things aren’t going to end well. This is a perfect example of why preparation is key. Let’s take a look at how easy it can be to make it through the whole race with no or minimal stops, and how to prepare for this crucial part of staying with the leaders.
The most important factor when you consider stopping vs not stopping is the course. First, the topography. During hilly events the peloton will break up and you’ll be riding solo or in small groups. Here, stopping isn’t as damaging, because you aren’t losing the draft of the peloton.
On the other hand, during flat races, with fast-moving and large pelotons, stopping can end your day in the leading group. If the peloton is moving at 25 mph or higher, even a quick stop will make it impossible for you to get back on.
If you’re targeting a top result at flat, fast races like GFNY Sebring or GFNY Cozumel, we strongly suggest being prepared for the full distance.
Even if the event you’re planning for is too long or too hot to complete without stopping, cutting down on your total number of stops can make a big difference in your overall time. You can follow the same guidelines below, and choose to stop once at the most strategic point on the course.
Hopefully, you’ve already read our on-the-bike nutrition guide. If not, please do, as understanding the basics of sport nutrition is key for your performance.
As a refresher, remember that we’re aiming to target between 60-100 grams of carbohydrate per hour during long races. Larger or more powerful riders should be in the higher half of this range, so if you’re aiming to make the front group of a GFNY race, you are definitely a candidate for the 80-100 grams per hour range.
This should be divided between calories consumed in your sports drink (which for a variety of reasons is better than just drinking water) as well as through gels, bars, and other food.
In-race nutrition typically divides into two categories: the first being fluid, the second being food (which includes gels, bars, and all other food).
In mild-to-moderate conditions, shooting for around 500-750 ml ml of fluid per hour is a good goal. By using large 1000 and 750 ml water bottles, you should be able to handle 3 hour efforts without stopping.
If the weather is warmer or you’re a heavy sweater, you can also consider using a hydration pack to carry extra fluid. There are plenty of sleek, aerodynamic and lightweight hydration packs on the market that will let you easily carry plenty of extra fluid. The extra weight will make almost no difference in a flatter event, and you’ll easily have enough fluid to survive warm temperatures.
More simply, you can start with a third bottle tucked in your jersey. The extra weight is a small penalty.
On top of fluid, you’ll want to carry enough food to last through the race. This is easier to manage than fluid, since food takes up less space and weighs less. However, it still requires some good planning.
As we mentioned above and in our on-bike nutrition guide, you’ll want to be targeting 80-100 grams of carbohydrate per hour. Pre-race, you’ll want to have done the math and sorted out what food you’ll be taking, being sure to also count the calories you’re carrying in your water bottles.
However, it always pays to carry a bit extra. You don’t want a dropped gel or bar to be the reason you bonk in the final of the race. So be sure to pack an extra bar and a few extra gels just in case.
Planning to be able to get through events without stopping is key if you hope to make the front group and compete for the win. That’s especially true during shorter, flatter and faster events, where others will be prepared to not stop, and where the high speeds and large pelotons make catching up impossible. With just a bit of planning, you’ll be prepared to make it through the entire race without bonking or becoming dehydrated.
In-race nutrition is a key aspect of performance, so if you still aren’t confident in what you need, be sure to check out or in-race nutrition guide here, and all of our other articles on training here.
GFNY Coaching is back this week with two more episodes of the Training Center Podcast.
Our first episode this week is General vs. Specific Training. Often athletes focus on the small details and lose sight of the big picture. We discuss the benefits to keeping training general and improving across the board instead of focusing on only one aspect of your cycling. Part 1, Part 2, Part 3
Our second episode is on cadence. We bust the myths that a higher cadence is always better, or that a cyclist has one ideal cadence. We get a bit into the science on this one, but bring it back to discuss how it impacts your training. Part 1, Part 2, Part 3
And remember that you can find the GFNY Training Center Podcast, and all editions of GFNY Daily Coffee Podcast, in a variety of locations.
Welcome to GFNY GRUPPO, a channel made to bring to you all the news about the GFNY world.
Bienvenidos a GFNY GRUPPO, un canal para mostrarles todo el mundo de GFNY.
Racing in windy conditions is one of the best tests of a cyclist’s ability that there is. To race strongly in the wind takes a complete cyclist. Physically, it requires a bit of everything: sustaining high power outputs for long periods, explosive efforts to close gaps or follow attacks, endurance to repeat those efforts over and over again until the finish of the race.
But wind racing isn’t just physical, it’s extraordinarily technical too. It requires knowledge of how to react depending on what direction the wind is coming from, how to ride in pacelines and echelons, and how to gain or maintain position in the peloton.
Finally, it’s a real mental challenge, too. Racing in the wind requires an athlete to be ‘switched-on’ at all times, ready for the next corner, crosswind section, or split in the peloton. One moment of relaxation can see you dropped or left with a hard effort to catch back on.
GFNY has plenty of events on the calendar where wind can make the difference in the race. Oceanside events in Cozumel and Mazatlan, races across the plains of Uruguay, and many other GFNY competitions will tax your mental and physical fortitude through hard, windy racing. To be successful at these races, it’s important to understand how to race in the wind.
Racing in the wind can take some experience, and you can’t learn it all simply from reading an article. But knowledge is the first step, so today you’re going to take a big step towards understanding how to race in the wind.
First, it’s important to understand the differences between headwinds, crosswinds, and tailwinds.
It’s also important you understand that the way wind impacts you on a solo ride isn’t the same way it will impact a peloton during a race.
Finally, we want you to understand the different drafting formations, and which are ideal to use in different scenarios.
Headwinds may be the bane of many cyclists when they’re riding solo, but in windy races, they’re actually the easiest part of the race. Headwinds mean that the riders sitting on the wheels get a huge benefit from drafting, and therefore they have the effect of canceling out attacks. If you’re in the group in a headwind, it’s not wise to attack or to try to split the group.
In a rotating paceline, each rider only touches the front of the group for a few seconds before peeling off to one side. This creates a constant flow, with one line being the advancing line and the other the retreating line. Every rider contributes to the pace, but only has to be in the wind for a short time before an extended period of recovery.
In this picture, the left side is the advancing line, while the riders on the right are going backwards before rejoining the advancing line when they arrive to the back.
The best drafting formation to use in headwinds is a rotating paceline. This is because the riders in front are doing much more work than the riders resting on the wheel. Therefore, the best use of your energy is very short, fast pulls at the front before pulling off to let the next rider through. The constantly rotating nature of the double paceline means that the only time you’re in the wind is during the 10 or so seconds you’re on the front. This lets your group conserve energy and maximize speed.
Tailwinds speed the group up, but they also cancel out some of the effect of the draft. This means tailwinds in a race situation are actually harder than headwinds. They can be a good place to attack and split the group, but it’s still fairly difficult to do so.
In a single paceline, one rider spends an extended period of time on the front before pulling off and retreating to the back. The principal advantage of a single paceline over a double is that riders can adjust the speed and length of their pulls, letting the stronger riders contribute more.
In a tailwind you can use either a single paceline or a double paceline. Since the difference in effort between those pulling and those sitting on is less than in a headwind, a single paceline can be a viable strategy. This lets stronger riders take longer pulls and keep the speed high. However, in the case of an evenly-matched group or a large one, a double paceline can still be an excellent strategy.
Ah, crosswinds! Crosswinds are to flat races what climbs are to mountainous races: the decisive points that will split the group and let the strongest show their legs. They also require a lot of technique, and if you haven’t mastered riding in echelons, you will struggle.
An echelon is a paceline, typically a double paceline, angled to one side to provide riders shelter from crosswinds. The sheltered riders ride both slightly behind and to the side of the rider in front, instead of directly behind him.
An echelon always points the direction of the wind, so in this case the echelon aims to the right to manage a crosswind coming from the right side.
In a normal drafting situation, you’re trying to hide from the wind created by the speed of the group. When the wind comes from the side, the ideal place to sit in the draft actually moves to the side of the rider in front of you, where you have some shelter from the crosswind and some shelter from the wind speed generated by your riding speed.
As you see in the picture above, the echelon is a rotating paceline which is running at an angle. The goal is to shelter from the wind, so if the wind is coming from the right, the leading portion of the echelon should be on the right, and vice versa.
An echelon should almost always be a double-paceline. Without that, the retreating riders waste too much energy. The only exception is if you’re in a very small group, or if not many riders are working. In that case, the echelon can be set up as a single paceline.
Within the category of crosswinds, we have different levels. Cross-headwinds will allow riders who echelon correctly to drop riders not in the echelon, but in the echelon itself riders will be well sheltered. In strong direct crosswinds or cross-tailwinds, things become very difficult, and even using a correct echelon formation, your legs will feel it.
The two riders in yellow and black helmets that we can just barely see are doing a good job of drafting in a crosswind, assuming the wind is coming from the rider’s left: behind but slightly to the right of the lead rider.
Even on windy days, certain features like buildings, forests and hills can provide shelter from the wind. These areas eliminate the possibility of crosswinds and even disrupt the force of head or tailwinds. During windy races, it’s key to look for these points. When you’re suffering in the wind, arriving in a sheltered area can provide the chance to move up or recover. And in a sheltered area before a windy section, it’s the literal calm before the storm: one last chance to prepare for what’s coming.
A thickly wooded section at GFNY Cozumel provides a respite from the wind. Sections like this are the perfect time to eat, drink, recover, and then get positioned for the next windy section.
Positioning is absolutely key during windy racing, especially during crosswind sections. If you get stuck behind an echelon, you’re what we call ‘in the gutter’-riding all the way at the edge of the ride, struggling to find some draft that isn’t there. Usually you’ll be dropped, if the pace stays high, and you’ll be forced to find another group to ride with. So before crosswind sections, it’s key to find a position at the front of the group. Use headwind, crosswind, and sheltered sections to find this position before making a turn or emerging from shelter into a crosswind.
In competitive situations, you won’t be the only rider who knows they need to be at the front. You might find much of the group races hard to arrive at the crosswind section at the front, so you’ll need to be on your toes.
In these situations, it’s key to time your effort correctly. If you spend all your gas to move up 5 km before the crosswind, you may find fresher riders come over the top with 500 meters to go. On the other hand, if you get caught all the way at the back, you won’t have enough time to move up last-minute. It’s a good strategy to ride about 20 riders back from the front of the peloton, and then aim to move up into the top 5 or 10 riders just before the crosswind starts.
Windy races are taxing mentally and require your brain to be working all the time. It’s key that you are always thinking of your next move: move up for the crosswind, ride efficiently in the echelon, recover and eat and drink in the headwind or sheltered section. Each section of the course offers a different set of things to focus on.
In your preparation for racing in the wind, do your best to seek out training that challenges you mentally as well as physically. Group rides or training races are key for this; it’s not a good idea to head to a windy race off of purely solo training. Even if where you live doesn’t have much wind, large group rides will challenge your bunch-riding skills and exercise you mentally in similar ways. If you don’t have crosswinds, practice moving around the peloton efficiently and learn to move up just before hills, turns, or hard sections of the ride. These same skills will work in windy races.
Finally, remember that you’ll want to stress your body in training in similar ways to the race. That means plenty of workouts at a high cadence, and long stretches in an aerodynamic position. Group rides are great for this, as are long intervals on flat roads (or on the trainer if you lack extended flat roads where you live). Bump your cadence up 5-10 rpm as this is what you’ll probably feel most comfortable with in the high speeds of the peloton on race day.
We’re back with more from the GFNY Training Center Podcast!
This week, we’ve got a new series of two episodes, each broken up into several parts.
First up, we compiled reader questions and answered them. We covered a few topics, including using Erg mode on the trainer, fasted training, and staying cool training indoors:
-Listen to Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3
The second episode for the week was all about hydration! We’ve covered in-race nutrition in depth before, but focused on getting in calories. This episode we talked about hydration, and helped pair that with previous episodes to help you make a full nutrition plan for race day.
And remember that you can find the GFNY Training Center Podcast, and all editions of GFNY Daily Coffee Podcast, in a variety of locations.
Welcome to GFNY GRUPPO, a channel made to bring to you all the news about the GFNY world.
Bienvenidos a GFNY GRUPPO, un canal para mostrarles todo el mundo de GFNY.
