Group Workouts are here so you can train and get faster with your friends, plus optimal indoor cycling setups for all budgets, how to add volume to your training and more in Episode 253 of the Ask a Cycling Coach Podcast.
@Nate_Pearson, I’ve had the same issue with finding specific bolts for my Look bike in the past. What I did, I found the spec for the original bolts and have them made. That way you can actually specify what material you want them to be made of (stainless steel in my case) and how many you want them.
There is also a very high chance that you can have like 20 of them made, for the price of 1 that you would otherwise have to pay.
The conversation started with adding more Z1 and Z2 rides and then turned to not inflaming the sympathetic nervous system (by adding more volume) and trying to focus on parasympathetic nervous system boosting (non-cycling) activities.
I believe it was Seiler (et al) who found that “highly trained subjects have rapid autonomic nervous system recovery after long, slow distance sessions” and “exercise below the first ventilatory threshold causes minimal disturbance in ANS balance”.
I can only assume the question asker (Ivan? Iver?) is in the ball park of “highly trained” what with doing 800-1000 TSS/wk. With that in mind, he should be able to add, as was suggested, more <Z2 volume without much physiological negative disturbance. Not that there’s anything wrong with PSN activity.
From an anecdotal standpoint, last summer I did 4 months of high volume only-Z2/<VT1 riding. At the beginning, my SNS and PNS were scarily out of whack (taken from HRV data). The only two things I did differently were transitioning to a high fat/lower carb diet (but not strict HFLC) and doing no intensity over VT1. Over that 4 month period, my LF/HF ratio went from 6.8 down to 0.46 (a sign of PNS dominance); HF (a PSN proxy) went from 500 to 5,000 (low is bad, high is good). During this same period I was also incredibly mentally stressed out – not PSN friendly! – yet simple non-intensive exercise (a lot of it) reduced an out of control SNS and revitalized a damaged PSN with great and lasting effect.
Adding more low intensity rides may also be more physiologically beneficial to the questioning rider than starting a new PSN-centric activity like yoga or meditation where there could be a long and/or steep learning curve (e.g. frustration, high cognitive load, yet another new routine, etc.). Getting on the bike is, as said in the podcast, Pavlovian; he knows what to do and can most likely do Z2 rides without much mental engagement/stress (PSN friendly).
My vote is for the bike, two birds and all that. But, also a perfect time to try out all those new and/or neglected things.
I did use those. Kind works as advertised. It caught and directed sweat at times. The issue I had with it was the storage would lead to massive drips at times when I dipped or turned my head at times when it had sweat inside.
I’d go from full sweat control to a flood of sweat on my glasses (only used these outside) that was far more annoying than not using it.
For inside, it might work ok, but you’d almost need to consider draining it at times to remove the captured sweat.
Talking about buying trainers and mid vs high vs low end. I bought an Elite Zumo, and one of my house mates has a LeMond Revolution, I actually prefer the LeMond to the Zumo. So if you’ve already got a power meter, getting a cheap dumb wheel off trainer can be an option.
I follow a pro cyclist, Lex Albrecht on Instagram and she posted about these for sweat management: https://www.veostrip.com I haven’t tried them, but mentally bookmarked them.
@Nate_Pearson mentioned the company he saw in Kona that sold some solution for glasses…Prevent fogging, etc.
Best tip I got from my tri days was baby shampoo for my swim goggles…completely prevents fogging and doesn’t irritate your eyes. I have since used it successfully on my cycling glasses for muggy morning rides or colder rides when I know fogging will be an issue.
Works great and costs a faction of a penny per usage.
@Nate_Pearson@Jonathan For Kyle, who had the two bike, one power meter question, I’ve got an approach that may work if he wants the PM on his outside bike most of the time. If he has done an FTP test on TR with his power meter, he can use that and do a little comparison. Do a workout like Tower, where he is recording his power meter power on his head unit, and let TR record “virtual” power on his trainer (assuming it’s not smart). I’ve done this before why trying to understand PM vs kickr power differences (below)
If we assume for illustration purposes his power meter ridden FTP test showed 200W, do tower with that 200W setting. but disconnect the power meter from TR this time. Run Tower using virtual power and hit those targets based on virtual power. Make sure to lap the bike computer which is recording the PM power at teh same time TR starts and finishes a lap. So if at 70% TR recorded a 140W lap power, but his PM showed 120W he knows that offset there. At FTP if TR was showing 200Wbut his PM showed 185W he knows there is a slight shift. He could then take that shift and determine what’s most important and shift his FTP in TR accordingly. If he plans to do a lot of threshold work, he could bump his FTP on TR by 15W if he’s using virtual power to replicate getting to a “real” 200W at FTP. If he’s doing a lot of endurance, maybe he bumps it 20W
It won’t be perfect, but if changing the PM gets to be a pain, this is a workaround that could get you in the ballpark.
