Optimize Your Energy Balance and Stamina — and Overcome Fatigue

If you are often tired and easily fatigued, bicycling regularly can help you mobilize huge reserves of energy. Most beginners are astounded by how far they can pedal after a few weeks of easy riding. Any healthy person should be easily able to build amazing resources of energy and stamina by (1) eating a diet high in complex- carbohydrates, especially whole grains and tubers; and (2) by challenging the body with increasing amounts of exercise.

Challenge the body with a ride of 5 miles and it will mobilize the energy you need to ride 5 miles the next time plus providing a reserve in addition. Two days later, you’ll find you can probably ride six miles without feeling tired. In two more days, you’ll be able to ride 7 miles. And so on. By increasingly challenging the body with slightly larger increments of exercise, the body will respond by mobilizing the additional energy you need. In no time at all, you’ll be able to ride 10 miles, then 20 miles, then 30 miles and more without feeling tired or fatigued.

Within a few months many beginning bicyclists are able to ride 50 miles a day through hilly country. The more often you ride, the more easily the miles melt away. Most adults who make the effort and really go for it seldom give up bicycling afterward.

Before beginning any exercise program, you should have your physician’s approval to exercise. During your physical checkup, explain your proposed fitness program to your doctor. Assuming you are under a physician’s supervision, gradually increasing increments of aerobic conditioning may still be the best way to recover from a heart attack, hypertension, or similar cardiac dysfunction. To pre vent a recurrence, it’s more essential than ever that you keep exercising regularly.

Overdoing It Is Out

It isn’t necessary to push yourself hard to mobilize energy. Today moderation is in; overdoing it is out. The no pain-no gain ethic and the “go for the burn” principle have no place in the current fitness renaissance. Exercise physiologists have learned that we can achieve the same health benefits, and reach the same levels of fitness, without subjecting ourselves to discomfort or stress.

The only essential is that you must keep on bicycling regularly, several times a week if possible. If you’re unable to bicycle on weekdays, you can still improve your fitness by swimming or brisk walking. You can then bicycle on weekends.

The important thing is never to give up on your exercise program or to miss a session. According to the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta, only eight percent of Americans exercise enough to gain any important health benefit. The majority of those who begin an exercise program give up after a few weeks or months. Half the bicycles purchased by adults are ridden fewer than six times. The majority of others are used only for casual riding.

Regardless of your age, refuse to hang your bicycle up in the garage to gather dust. According to Dr. Fred W. Kasch, director of the Exercise Physiology Laboratory at San Diego State University, it is still possible to become physically fit even if you haven’t exercised for years. In a study of men aged 45-55, Dr. Kasch found that those who had rarely exercised in the past could achieve a level of fitness almost equal to that of men who had exercised regularly for over ten years.

So don’t allow any excuses. Find a convenient time slot for exercise and have your bicycle and clothes laid out the night before. Give exercise top priority. Change your lifestyle so that you exercise at every opportunity. Join the health and fitness culture. Break all ties with the couch potato way of life. Begin to see joy and pleasure in physical exertion. Study and learn all you can about bicycling. Become an expert. Subscribe to bicycling magazines and join a bicycle club.

And don’t be satisfied with a bare minimum of exercise. If you pedal slowly and coast often, you won’t improve your health and fitness very much.

kop-8-110.jpg Pedaling this touring bicycle with full camping gear, 79-year old John C. Coppersmith, a retired civil engineer from san Jose, California, not long ago completed his second ride across the U.S. Camping all the way, he covered 4,487 miles in 70 days.

To achieve any real benefit from cycling, or other exercise, you must exercise briskly enough to raise your heartbeat level to 70—85 percent of its safe maximum level for at least 20 minutes on 3 non- consecutive days each week.

This can be done in one of two ways.

Aerobic Conditioning

Aerobic training conditions your heart and lungs by keeping your heartbeat in the “target zone” for a minimum of 20 minutes at each exercise session. To determine your target rate, subtract your age from 220. Assuming you are aged 40, then 220 - 40 = 180, your maximum permissible heartbeat rate. Your safe aerobic exercise target zone lies between 70 and 85 percent of 180. Multiplying 180 x 0.7 = 126, the lower limit; and multiplying 180 x 0.85 = 153, the upper limit of the target zone.

Thus at age 40 your aerobic target zone would be 126-153 beats per minute. At no time should you ever exceed your maximum heartbeat rate of 180 beats per minute.

Because women have smaller hearts and lungs, I recommend that at first women reduce their target zone range by 14 percent. This simple means multiplying the previous target zone range by 0.86. Thus for a 4 the previous 126-153 range becomes 108-132. However, with steady training, many women can eventually equal the performance of men.

For cardiac improvement a 4 male should keep the heartbeat range between 126 and 153 beats per minute for a mini mum of 20 minutes per session. Ideally, you should exercise three to four times each week on nonconsecutive days.

The target zone is intended to challenge your heart, lungs, and muscles, not to stress or harm them. To get your heart rate into the target zone you normally will have to spin the pedals in the 70-90 r.p.m. range or higher. If at any time while exercising you are unable to talk without feeling breathless, you are overdoing it.

At first you may be able to stay in the target zone for only a brief period. Don’t push yourself too hard. Just keep exercising regularly. After a few sessions, the cardiovascular system will respond to aerobic conditioning so that within a month a significant improvement should occur.

How a Bicycle Computer Can Help You Train

To take your pulse, stop riding and place a finger or thumb on your wrist artery and count the number of beats in 15 seconds. Then multiply by 4. Continue the ride immediately. Stop only once during each session, preferably near the end of the ride. If your pulse is below the target zone, very gradually increase speed, distance, and duration. If it rises above the zone limits, drop to an easier pace.

Taking your pulse is easier if you have a bicycle computer. Even the most elementary computer has a digital stop watch. While riding you can feel your throat pulse with the fingers of one hand and count the number of beats during a 10-second period. Multiplying this figure by 6 gives the number of heartbeats per minute.

More advanced computers incorporate a special pulse monitor operated by a sensor worn on the chest or the earlobe. Some computers sound an alarm when you exceed or drop below your target zone. Others provide 16 hours of pulse memory, allowing you to see how hard your heart was worked during each stage of your workout.

Still other computers display your pedal cadence, and one model even includes an altimeter showing the cumulative elevation gain of all hills you have ridden up. You can even get a triathlon version for swimming, running, and bicycling. Computers that show pedal cadence can be a great help in maintaining an even rhythm within the 60-95 r.p.m. range.

Even the most elementary computer continuously shows speed, trip distance, cumulative distance, and a digital stop watch. Each function can be changed by pressing a button. With such a simple model you can still measure cadence by counting your pedal revolutions against the seconds on the stop watch.

As with all such devices, the more sophisticated and complex the computer, the more expensive it is and the more likely it is to break down. In practice, many new computers fail within the first 30 days. All are swiftly replaced by the bike shop or manufacturer. But once a computer has operated successfully during a month of rides, it usually continues to perform dependably.

You should also record your pulse rate one minute after you cease to exercise. It should have begun to drop. If it hasn’t, you’re probably overdoing it.

Start Out in the Comfort Zone

If staying in the target zone is uncomfortable, try staying in the “comfort zone” instead. You calculate the comfort zone by subtracting your age from 225 and multiplying by 0.6. (Example: 225 — age 40 = 185 x 0.6 = 111 beats per minute.) Few beginners have difficulty staying in the comfort zone.

As your heart and muscles become conditioned to the comfort zone, you can begin to increase the pace and allow your heart to beat faster — always, of course, without incurring discomfort.

The same effect occurs as you reach the target zone and begin to stay in it longer. Your heartbeat will steadily become slower under the same workload. It will recover more rapidly from exercise, and will drop back more swiftly to its resting pulse rate. Week by week, your resting pulse rate will steadily diminish. Then as you gradually exercise for longer periods, the capacity of your heart to handle exertion will show a significant and steady increase. Eventually, you will be able to stay in the target zone for 30 minutes or longer.

Whenever you feel like putting off bicycling because it’s too windy or cold, or you don’t feel like it, force yourself to get started. (This naturally exempts a bona fide health reason.) But if it’s raining, go for a swim instead. Or take a brisk walk, or pedal on an indoor trainer. You’ll always come back feeling refreshed and invigorated.

LSD Conditioning—Long Steady Distance

You can improve your energy, fitness, and stamina by riding either faster or farther. While aerobic conditioning emphasizes riding faster — and is preferred by people with little time — the focus of LSD conditioning is on riding farther while maintaining the same comfortable pace.

Admittedly, LSD conditioning may not produce the dramatic benefits of aerobic training. But it is easier on older riders and it very definitely will improve your fitness and keep you in top shape. Instead of riding in the target zone for 20 - 30 minutes, however, you may need to ride at a steady pace for two hours to achieve the same benefit. In other words, you ride at your best speed over a longer distance while never reaching the point of exhaustion or fatigue. If you plan to take a long tour, LSD conditioning will prepare you at least as well as aerobic conditioning.

You should still take your pulse occasionally, near the end of each ride, and you should not exceed the upper limit of your aerobic target zone. But emphasis is on going the distance, not on raising the pulse rate.

Beginning to Exercise

If you have been inactive for years, it is often better to begin by walking instead of bicycling. In any event, begin very gradually and never become tired or fatigued. Too, avoid any sudden spurts. Keep increasing your walking distance until you can walk 3 miles in one hour. Not until you have attained this basic level of fitness should you begin to ride a bicycle. If you have a knee problem that prevents you from walking, either undertake a comparable swimming fitness program or ride on an indoor training bicycle.

When you begin to bicycle, set goals for time rather than for speed or distance. Start by bicycling for 20 minutes. When you’re comfortable with that, increase to 25 minutes, then to 30, 40, 50, and 60 minutes. At that point change to a distance goal. Ride 10 miles, then 12, then 14, 16, 18, and 20 miles at a time. By the time you’re riding 20 miles, your resting pulse rate should have dropped significantly and you should be ready for either aerobic or LSD conditioning.

Advises David B. Rusling, tour manager of Backcountry Bicycle Tours, “Adults should start out by bicycling slowly. Add miles gradually week by week as you ride. Make sure you spin using a high pedal cadence to avoid sore knees. Shift around on the bike to avoid getting sore from sitting in one position too long. The bottom line is to keep cycling fun.”

Stretch, Start Slowly, and Work Up to Speed

Always stretch and warm up before exercising. Using a smooth, fluid movement, do a few stretching exercises like toe touching, swinging the torso, or yoga postures. Stretch all leg muscles thoroughly. Then spend a few minutes pedaling easily in low gears to warm up and loosen leg muscles. If you’re already into aerobic conditioning, spend a few more minutes spinning the pedals as you gradually work up into your target zone.

Likewise, ease down on speed as your exercise session ends. Spend several minutes gradually reducing speed and cooling down. Then dismount and spend two minutes walking to prevent blood pooling in the legs. Finally, repeat the same stretches you did at the beginning. Avoid rushing into a hot shower or sauna immediately after you finish. Either can send blood pressure soaring.

Once you can stay in the aerobic target zone for 15—20 minutes, or have achieved a fairly competent level of LSD conditioning, you are ready to progress to interval training.

Building Endurance Through Interval Training

Designed to increase endurance while racing, interval training consists of pedaling intensely for a short period followed by pedaling through a slower recovery period. Usually the interval of intense effort lasts 15-60 seconds, followed by a recovery interval of 30-90 seconds. The intervals are then repeated until the rider has spent a total of 10-20 minutes riding at full intensity.

Racers frequently ride a series of intervals, such as 15 thirty- second intervals, each followed by a recovery interval. Or they may do 10 thirty-second intervals followed by 20 fifteen-second intervals and wind up with some longer work intervals.

Thorough warmup and cool-down periods are essential for interval training. Gears are not usually shifted during the work or recovery intervals. During the work interval, it’s important to give it everything you’ve got and to maintain the same speed throughout the interval. If you have to slow down, you’re pushing too hard.

A modified form of interval training can be used with LSD conditioning. For instance, you can ride harder for 3-5 minutes, followed by 5 minutes of recovery. Or you can alternate 3 minutes of harder pedaling with 3 minutes of easier pedaling. You might also try riding at 10 m.p.h. for 30 minutes followed by 15 m.p.h. for 15 minutes. Naturally you would not exert yourself as vigorously as when doing shorter intervals. Yet the overall effect would be to increase your endurance and strength.

How to Train for a Century (100-mile) Ride

Interval training works best if you practice it several times each week. One advantage is that, if your exercise time is limited, you can still acquire the proficiency to ride long distances. If you’re training for a century, you can obtain almost as much training benefit by riding only 25 miles at a fast pace, as by going 80 miles at a moderate speed.

Most people under 50 who are reasonably fit can manage to ride a century within a year of beginning to bicycle regularly. Most centuries allow riders 10—11 hours to complete the 100-mile distance. For your first attempt use a road bike fitted with 27” X 1/8”, or with 700 x 25, tires and plan to ride at about 12 m.p.h.

To train for a century you can use another modified form of interval training. Set 3 different speeds for yourself: Easy is to be a relaxed pace; Century is to be 12 m.p.h.; and Brisk is to be faster.

Work out a daily riding program like the one outlined in Table 8.1.

Each week add one mile to the beginning weekday distance until you reach the maximum distance. Each Saturday add 5 miles and each Sunday add 2 miles. Exceed the maximum distance only on weekends, and then only if you feel like going farther.

You can also integrate aerobic conditioning and interval training into this program, but only on alternate days. The essential thing is to make one really long ride each week. Almost everyone who stays with such a program, and can ride 80 miles at 12 m.p.h., is able to complete a century. Nowadays, most century events include an optional and shorter metric century of 100 kilometers for those unable to ride 100 miles.

If a choice of terrain is available, alternate a hilly ride one day with a faster ride on a flat stretch the following day. The same training program would prepare you very adequately for any kind of extended or difficult tour.

Each of these conditioning techniques has been developed for road bikes. Yet you can use the same techniques when riding a mountain bike. Furthermore, riding up steep hills on unpaved roads or trails provides superb conditioning, as does maintaining a faster pace on level areas while using fat tires. It is often possible to ride a mountain bike in cooler weather than would be enjoyable on a road bike.

Table 8-1: Daily Riding Program

Continue to Exercise Year-Round

In some areas, like south Texas or southern California, bicycling is enjoyable all year. But in northern states it’s best to place your bicycle on an indoor trainer during winter. Using aerobic or LSD conditioning, or interval training, can help to break the monotony of riding indoors.

And while bicycling does exercise most muscle groups, the legs receive the greatest workout. Thus during winter, you can alternate indoor bicycling with calisthenics, swimming, brisk walking, or cross-country skiing, which also exercise arms, trunk, and abdomen.

Whichever type of workout you choose, always maintain good riding style. Ride like a pro, using good form with pedals spinning and elbows flexed. As you do, the bicycle will become an extension of your body. You will pedal with a supple fluidity that maintains your cadence at roughly the same brisk pace over every type of condition and terrain.

You will find yourself able to ride long distances without fatigue. And you will seldom, if ever, run out of energy.

Next: Bicycle Safety

Prev: Tips for Successful Bicycling