Dogtrousers
Kilometre nibbler
Over the past year, due to you-know-what, I've dropped my regular 100 mile rides, and not done any 200km audaxes. My rides have been shorter, hillier and I've been doing more on the turbo. I suspect that if I were to go out for a 200km ride now I'd have an extremely hard time of it towards the end, even if it was a flat route.
Recently @Ming the Merciless made a comment about "fatigue resistance", the ability to keep going. It got me thinking. I propose an alternate scientific term for this: getting knacked.
I just read this article in Cycling Weekly which is a description of metabolic pathways. There are tons of such articles, I think this is a particularly good and clear one. I also saw a GCN video recently which, in typical GCN style, conveyed the message (I paraphrase) "forget about long slow distance and base miles, doing high intensity intervals is a great way to train for long endurance rides".
The CW article, biochemically accurate it may be, describes the body as a metabolic machine and doesn't address the ratchet-like process of getting knackered. The longer you ride, the more knackeredness you inevitably accumulate. The GCN vid is no doubt correct in that if you do intervals you'll be in a much better position to ride a long way than if you don't. But it doesn't take into account that after a certain distance you will get knackered.
It's a one-way process. A gel won't un-knacker you. Nor will an isotonic hydration product. Even a bag of chips and a saveloy and a can of ginger beer will be unlikely to put a dent in it. The only way to recover from this to get off your bike, sit in a comfy chair and fall asleep in front of the telly.
I suspect that the only way to defer getting knackered over long rides is to do long rides. It could be that it's partly a mental thing. You just become habituated to riding in a state of knackeredness. That feeling of heavy legs, where you can't accelerate at all and every little incline needs the low gears.
Thoughts?
Recently @Ming the Merciless made a comment about "fatigue resistance", the ability to keep going. It got me thinking. I propose an alternate scientific term for this: getting knacked.
I just read this article in Cycling Weekly which is a description of metabolic pathways. There are tons of such articles, I think this is a particularly good and clear one. I also saw a GCN video recently which, in typical GCN style, conveyed the message (I paraphrase) "forget about long slow distance and base miles, doing high intensity intervals is a great way to train for long endurance rides".
The CW article, biochemically accurate it may be, describes the body as a metabolic machine and doesn't address the ratchet-like process of getting knackered. The longer you ride, the more knackeredness you inevitably accumulate. The GCN vid is no doubt correct in that if you do intervals you'll be in a much better position to ride a long way than if you don't. But it doesn't take into account that after a certain distance you will get knackered.
It's a one-way process. A gel won't un-knacker you. Nor will an isotonic hydration product. Even a bag of chips and a saveloy and a can of ginger beer will be unlikely to put a dent in it. The only way to recover from this to get off your bike, sit in a comfy chair and fall asleep in front of the telly.
I suspect that the only way to defer getting knackered over long rides is to do long rides. It could be that it's partly a mental thing. You just become habituated to riding in a state of knackeredness. That feeling of heavy legs, where you can't accelerate at all and every little incline needs the low gears.
Thoughts?