KOM Buster

A segment that really hurts.

 

Efficiency

Your Body's Efficiency

Have you ever wondered why, for so many people (and especially for anyone older than 30 years old), weight gain seems to be a fact of life? It's because the human body is way too efficient! It just does not take that much energy to maintain the human body at rest; and when exercising, the human body is amazingly frugal when it comes to turning food into motion.

At rest (for example, while sitting and watching television), the human body burns only about 12 calories per pound of body weight per day (26 calories per kilogram). That means that if you weigh 150 pounds (68 kg), your body uses only about:

150 X 12 = 1,800 calories per day

Twelve calories per pound per day is a rough estimate -- see How Calories Work for details.

Those 1,800 calories are used to do everything you need to stay alive:

• They keep your heart beating and lungs breathing.
• They keep your internal organs operating properly.
• They keep your brain running.
• They keep your body warm.

In motion, the human body also uses energy very efficiently. For example, a person running a marathon (26 miles or 42 km) burns only about 2,600 calories. In other words, you burn only about 100 calories per mile (about 62 calories per km) when you are running.

You can see just how efficient the human body is if you compare your body to a car. A typical car in the United States gets between 15 and 30 miles per gallon of gasoline (6 to 12 km/L). A gallon of gas contains about 31,000 calories. That means that if a human being could drink gasoline instead of eating hamburgers to take in calories, a human being could run 26 miles on about one-twelfth of a gallon of gas (0.3 L). In other words, a human being gets more than 300 miles per gallon (120 km/L)! If you put a human being on a bicycle to increase the efficiency, a human being can get well over 1,000 miles per gallon (more than 500 km/L)!

That level of efficiency is the main reason why it is so easy to gain weight.

Race Season thus far

Swynnerton Army Camp Race 4

This was a handicap race with a few minutes between age groups.
The heat was on from the start and the pace over the 2.5 mile circuit was high and was kept high.
After 45 minutes of the 75 minute racetime, I wasn't feeling too well and just tried to keep in.
The bell sound was very welcome and came to life a bit on the final lap and finished pretty strong but whacked.

Saturday 6th July

2 training sessions on Thursday and a 25 mile road ride yesterday should not have added up to too much fatigue but the 'legs' feel heavy today after 30 minutes or so of light work on the turbo and a road test of the race bike in preparation for tomorrow's TLI handicap race.

The race plan is to go with a good tempo from the off to try and discourage too many attacks off the front (if that is likely). Coming around on the second lap at the start of the finish straight at Swynnerton and all is routine we will try to accelerate quietly and go through and off just the 2 of us:
a) to string the bunch out
b) to create a gap

The fact that it is a handicap race may throw up many possibilities.

 

Mid Season Break - Over

From this:

 

to this:



 

CTL and Power

Below is my CTL and power trend from season start to today.

 The CTL shows a steady but undramatic rise with aerobic and anaerobic also slightly trending upwards.
There is less specific training in a race season and also I dont race with any power device as I do when training on the turbo.
There are only a few training sessions where I would train at the 'top' in order to gather the stats for wattages for 1 minute, 5 minutes etc.
The next race is always close and thus keeping form is probably the key element to 'in season' training.

Strava

I thought I'd try and set a decent time for the half 10 back from Holmes Chapel.
I already have the best time for the full 10 which finishes at the Co Op in Scholar Green. It seems quite a few 'Mancs' like this short segment  so it is nice to set the record straight for the Staffs and Cheshire lads.
The temporary traffic lights just over the railway bridge at the start did not help with a fast start but probably helps with the classic TT rule of 'never go off too hard'!
I was able to settle in a diesel gear of 52/11 and cadence around the 80 mark.
If someone does beat the time, I may use the other bike with a 53 chainring as it will be only a matter of seconds unless someone hits it with a full TT rig.
I also suspect that some of the quicker times were done 2 or 3 up, but that is just my suspicious nature.

Swynnerton Army Camp TLI Race 23rd June 2013

A smallish field due to the inclement weather. 75 minutes of actual race time on a damp and rather muddy (in places) road circuit. No issues with cornering however and thus the race pace was consistently high.
A few small attacks went off the front for the first hour but were contained by the bunch. I made a quick lap after 50 minutes on the front but resulted in me 'not seeing' a turn and went straight on into the car park and had to do a quicj about turn and chase after the bunch. Fortunately no one attacked or I might have been in trouble latching back on again.
With 3 laps to go, 4 riders went off the front but were kept in sight. I didnt jump across with more in mind that I wasnt going to drag the bunch with me. Also I thought that they would come back eventually before the finish.
I kept upfront on last lap to keep a clear run through the corners and on the home straight the finish line came quicker than you think. I should have gone even harder.