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}
