Why is Cycling so Interesting?

Well, I recently came across this wonderful video put together by Eurosport, explaining the technical side of sprinting and how sprint trains work. It was a very well made video with colourful graphics and catchy sound effects. Having followed the sport since the days of Armstrong and being actually involved in it at an amateur level for over a year now, these technical aspects are kind of ingrained into almost every training ride I do and so I did not give the video a second thought. However, what surprised me was people’s reaction to it! It was shared millions of times and several of my friends shared it and tagged me on Facebook.

It was then that I realized what was so special about it. It explained the science behind the sport and implicitly explained why it is so interesting! Cycling is a Hi-tech sport like Formula 1, with new technologies and advanced bicycles coming up every season. There’s one big difference though. The engines powering the machines are you and me. This simple fact, adds an entire dimension to the sport, making it the fine art of balancing the science of aerodynamics, rolling resistance, pedaling efficiency and the likes with the intricacies of Human Physiology!

The human body is like no other engine. We all know about the basic nutrients like carbohydrates, fats and proteins. I knew about it too. It was stuff I had learned in school and picked up from a conversation here and there – something along the lines of “Fats are bad”, “Milk is good, it has proteins”, “Parle G - G for Genius!”, Blah blah blah.  So when I started riding really long distances on my bicycle a year and a half back, I had only these hear-tell things to guide me and guess what happened - I failed miserably. So I scoured the internet just like always, to actually understand what the hell was actually happening inside me! Well, it turns out that the body uses all three nutrients to produce energy that we then use to do stuff. In fact, it produces energy from all three different fuel sources, all the time, all at the same time!

Protein is what makes up the muscles, organs and all the other crazy stuff that’s inside you. Let’s just skip that part here. Carbs is something the body cannot store a lot of. HOWEVER, the body can store all the fat that we eat. It just dumps it under the skin as {BIOLOGY ALERT} adipose tissue {BIOLOGY ALERT ENDS}. Oh yeah, I’m talking about the flabs on your belly, you’re guiltily looking down at now. That’s kind of like our biggest fuel tank and, turns out… surprise surprise, it’s also the best type of fuel! That explains why our body preserves it like it’s its gold or something.

So when you are cycling, or for that matter doing any activity like running or swimming, the body tries to make maximum use of its best fuel. BUT.. Yeah, just like all good things, there’s a catch here too :( - it is a slow process. It is fine when you are riding along slowly, but when you need to run like Usain Bolt or sprint like Mark Cavendish – it just doesn’t work. So what does the body’s command center order? Just like the Mad King, it says, “BURN THEM ALL !!!!”. Whoops. No, that’s not right. Sorry about that Game Of Thrones hangover. It says, “Burn more Carbs !!!”.

That gets you going like this:

BUT (Damn it!!!), it leaves behind this:

Well, not quite smoke, but {BIOLOGY ALERT} lactate ions {BIOLOGY ALERT ENDS} in your muscles. Oh, that’s just something that makes you feel like this:

And if you still keep going at the Road Runner’s pace, this is what will happen:

Ah yeah, I guess that’s one too many ‘The Road Runner Show’ reference. But that’s almost exactly what happens. You burn out or hit the wall. You’ll come to a crawl.

So that brings us back to me and my long long rides. How do I keep going for days on end? Simple - “Don’t go fast!” Let the body use a lot of the highly efficient Fats and less of the Carbs, drink a lot of water and when you feel like you are going to run out of carbs (You feel hungry), eat High Carb foods. Follow this and you can practically keep going on and on. There’s just one other thing that could come in your way though. Sleep. You keep going long enough; Jamie from your own Kingsguard will stab you in the back! Err, excuse the hangover. Basically, your body knocks you down and as a result, you may even fall asleep on your bike (Ahem ahem, yeah I know you’re looking at me)(in case you are wondering why, read this).  Oh and ‘one more thing’ (Gosh, now I feel like Steve Jobs), fatigue starts setting in after a bunch of hours. It manifests itself in different forms – your butt might start to hurt (ouch!), you might get headache, leg pain or something like that. That’s when mental toughness comes into the picture. TAT TA DA! Just keep this in mind, “the only thing worse than all that pain is the guilt you feel when you quit”. So keep chugging along.

If, “that’s all fine, but I want to go faster as well! It’s the speed that thrills me” is what you are saying (like I’ve been saying for a while now), keep reading.

Remember when the Command center orders “Burn more Carbs !!!”? That point is called the {BIOLOGY ALERT} Lactate Threshold {BIOLOGY ALERT ENDS}. Below that point, you are like the beloved Hero (Honda) Splendor – normal speed and awesome mileage; above it you are like the Rut tut tut ing 2 Stroke Yamaha RD350 – great speed and acceleration but lots of gunky smoke and poor mileage. That’s not the end of the story though, because like I said, the body is like no other engine. It can adapt over time!

All you have to do is to keep telling it that you need to go faster. Tell it? No not like talking to yourself or something like that. You go fast and take it beyond the lactate threshold for a while and return back below it, before you burn out. What does that do? It sends pain signals (ever heard cyclists boast proudly about suffering? This is it) straight to the command center. You keep doing this often and regularly for a period of time, the command center gets super pissed off at you for making it suffer. THEN, just to make itself comfortable, it goes back in time through the Weirwood, assumes the name Brandon the Builder and raises a magic wall. Wait NO, that’s not it. It just does some cool biological stuff to be able to use the super fuel – fats, even at the higher speeds! The result? Speed of RD350 with the mileage of Splendor AND no gunky smoke! Woot!

Simply put, this is what training is. You just keep playing this game with the command center again and again until you are like this:

Damn, I can’t get enough of Chuck Jones. But I guess that’s enough Biology and GOT for the day.

That's all folks! {PHYSICS ALERT} May the wind always be at your back {PHYSICS ALERT ENDS}