Most cyclists who train regularly will be well acquainted
with their turbo trainer. A turbo trainer is a device that clamps onto the rear
wheel and allows you to ride while the bike stays stationary. This means you
can train inside, on your own bike, in your racing position, and avoid the bad
weather. Turbo trainers also allow for a very effective workout with a wide
range of resistance levels. There are lots of different turbo trainers on the
market, but most of them make a bit of noise, like a washing machine.
Generally, turbo trainers are used indoors, in a garage or training room. When
on a turbo trainer, you tend to sweat a lot, and they are notoriously boring –
a three-hour turbo session feels like forever.
Cyclists will usually keep their bike and turbo trainer permanently set up in the same place. This place is sometimes referred to as the “pain cave” – a mentally tough place where painful, tough workouts take place and fitness is built. All professional cyclists and triathletes will have a pain cave. Whether this is a shed or outbuilding, or a spare room that has been turned into a gym, or a conservatory, or whatever, the pain cave is a place that is easy to access and a place where you can really push your limits. Particularly in winter, when the daylight hours are short, when the weather is freezing and wet and stormy, when decamping to Tenerife or Lanzarote for 3 or 4 months isn’t an option, and when building towards a summer racing season, the pain cave becomes a very familiar place.
The pain cave isn’t glamorous or fun, but it’s where the groundwork is done months before a race. Ideally, a pain cave would be indoors but not in a garage, in a climate-controlled room with a fan or two, with windows to allow fresh air to circulate, where it’s OK to get sweaty and take off your top to cool down, and where it’s OK to leave sweaty clothes. Ideally there would be a TV to alleviate the boredom and help to take your mind off the pain when the session gets tough, ideally there would be a toilet close at hand, and ideally it would be somewhere free from interruptions.
Now for the run. I’ll turn the fan off straight away. As soon as I stop pedalling, I stop producing body heat and I get cold very quickly. Wearing clothes that are saturated with sweat doesn’t help either, and I don’t need a fan blowing cold air on me. I’ll basically strip off in the garage, towel myself down quickly, grind my teeth against the cold, get clean dry gear on as quickly as possible, and within three minutes I’ll be running. I’ll do 30 minutes, that’ll be about 5 miles. When running, there is a bit more mental stimulation – you have to look where you are going and be alert to the surroundings. The run isn’t actually that tough. These post-bike runs are done at Ironman marathon pace, around 7 minutes per mile. I’d say right now I could run a 10K in about 32 minutes, at around 5:15 minutes per mile. So 7 minute miling feels easy. It’s cold though, and dark, and wet, and 9pm, and I’m hungry and fatigued after the bike. The 30 minutes passes, and I go straight inside for a banana, a fistful of spinach and a protein milkshake. This will be followed immediately by a shower and some stretching, and then dinner, a few vitamin tablets, and bed. That will be one more day in the bank, one more little bit of fitness gained, 5-and-a-half more months to go…
This week my pain cave has been particularly painful as my back has flared up again. I thought it was better, but I did a tough run session mid-week and afterwards, my back got stiff again. I haven’t been following any of my bikes with runs this week to try to give my back a break and allow it to recover, and I also haven’t been doing any weights for the same reason. This is disappointing, but hopefully the back will ease. Normally, I would be at the end of a 2-week cycle of training and looking forward to an easier week next week, which would really help my back. But it looks like I will be going to Norway with work the week after next, and while in Norway I won’t have as much control over my training, so I will try to make the Norway week an easier week and continue to train next week and manage my back as best I can.
Training this week was as follows:
Cyclists will usually keep their bike and turbo trainer permanently set up in the same place. This place is sometimes referred to as the “pain cave” – a mentally tough place where painful, tough workouts take place and fitness is built. All professional cyclists and triathletes will have a pain cave. Whether this is a shed or outbuilding, or a spare room that has been turned into a gym, or a conservatory, or whatever, the pain cave is a place that is easy to access and a place where you can really push your limits. Particularly in winter, when the daylight hours are short, when the weather is freezing and wet and stormy, when decamping to Tenerife or Lanzarote for 3 or 4 months isn’t an option, and when building towards a summer racing season, the pain cave becomes a very familiar place.
The pain cave isn’t glamorous or fun, but it’s where the groundwork is done months before a race. Ideally, a pain cave would be indoors but not in a garage, in a climate-controlled room with a fan or two, with windows to allow fresh air to circulate, where it’s OK to get sweaty and take off your top to cool down, and where it’s OK to leave sweaty clothes. Ideally there would be a TV to alleviate the boredom and help to take your mind off the pain when the session gets tough, ideally there would be a toilet close at hand, and ideally it would be somewhere free from interruptions.
In my case, in my house-share, I am banished to the garage.
It’s a bit disconcerting to know that my expensive bike is in the garage all
the time and that this invalidates my bike insurance if the unthinkable should
happen and it should get stolen. Saying that, at least the garage is alarmed
and the area I live in is not bad.
My pain cave
I have set up a fan right in front of the bike, and I have a
towel over the bike when I am riding to catch the sweat and to wipe my face
with. The garage door is half-open to allow some air to circulate. The garage
has no windows and is quite musty so it’s not ideal. I don’t like to turbo train
“in public” with the bike exposed, so I close the garage door as much as I can.
I listen to music on my MP3 player, and this is the best I can do to make the
set-up as effective as it can be. It’s far from ideal.
The pain cave, ready to go
When I get into really heavy training, I’ll be in the pain
cave up to 4 times a week. I’ll come home at 6:30pm from a long day at work – I’ll
have been up since 6am. I’ll know I have 2 hours in the pain cave, followed by
a 5-mile run, and then a shower and dinner before I can get to bed. There is no
question of not putting myself through it, so I don’t listen to the “you could
just not bother” voices in my head and I’ll get changed straight away into my
cycling gear. If I want to have a good race at Ironman UK, I have to be
consistent in my training: no excuses. I’ll make up my electrolyte drink, eat
an energy gel, gather together what I need, and get into the garage.
The wind is howling, it’s lashing rain, the garage is freezing and very uninviting. But I’ll get on the bike. I’ll be doing 2 hours. 2 hours! It will be 8:45pm before I’m finished on the bike, and 9:15pm before I’ll be finished the run. But, the sooner I start, the sooner it’s over, so I’ll get straight on the bike. No procrastinating. Maybe I’ll be doing 10-minute intervals, with ten minutes easy and ten minute hard. So the first ten minutes will be a warm up, during which time I’ll get the earphones in and get the music going. Maybe I’ll listen to some Korean, as I am trying to improve on this. I’ll be wearing two layers and a jacket because it’s so cold, and the fan will not be on yet.
After ten minutes, I’ll be starting to warm up, but I’ll not want to take off any layers because the air is cold. The first half of the turbo session will usually pass quite quickly as I’ll try to stay within myself and spread my efforts over the whole session – the idea is not to fade at the end. By the time the second hour comes around, the fan will be going, blasting cold air over me. The jacket will be off but I’ll still be wearing a layer which will be soaked in sweat. It would be too cold to have no top on, as having a fan blowing cold air onto a sweaty body would create serious windchill.
Moving into the second half of the session is where it really starts to get tough. Time starts to slow down, the legs will feel heavy, the heart will be pounding at 180 beats per minute, the breathing will be heavy over the whirring noise of the turbo trainer, the energy levels will be dropping, but still I’ll keep the legs turning. Two more ten-minute efforts left. Come on. Ten minutes feels like an hour, I’m clockwatching and counting off the seconds until an effort is finished, and trying to keep the legs spinning at 90rpm. One effort left, come on. It’s so tough. I break it into 20-second chunks, each of which will be 30rpm of the legs, if I maintain my strength. It’s difficult to even count. The music is blaring. I’m probably kicking out something like 500-600 watts. It passes. I am hanging off the bike when it’s over.
The wind is howling, it’s lashing rain, the garage is freezing and very uninviting. But I’ll get on the bike. I’ll be doing 2 hours. 2 hours! It will be 8:45pm before I’m finished on the bike, and 9:15pm before I’ll be finished the run. But, the sooner I start, the sooner it’s over, so I’ll get straight on the bike. No procrastinating. Maybe I’ll be doing 10-minute intervals, with ten minutes easy and ten minute hard. So the first ten minutes will be a warm up, during which time I’ll get the earphones in and get the music going. Maybe I’ll listen to some Korean, as I am trying to improve on this. I’ll be wearing two layers and a jacket because it’s so cold, and the fan will not be on yet.
After ten minutes, I’ll be starting to warm up, but I’ll not want to take off any layers because the air is cold. The first half of the turbo session will usually pass quite quickly as I’ll try to stay within myself and spread my efforts over the whole session – the idea is not to fade at the end. By the time the second hour comes around, the fan will be going, blasting cold air over me. The jacket will be off but I’ll still be wearing a layer which will be soaked in sweat. It would be too cold to have no top on, as having a fan blowing cold air onto a sweaty body would create serious windchill.
Moving into the second half of the session is where it really starts to get tough. Time starts to slow down, the legs will feel heavy, the heart will be pounding at 180 beats per minute, the breathing will be heavy over the whirring noise of the turbo trainer, the energy levels will be dropping, but still I’ll keep the legs turning. Two more ten-minute efforts left. Come on. Ten minutes feels like an hour, I’m clockwatching and counting off the seconds until an effort is finished, and trying to keep the legs spinning at 90rpm. One effort left, come on. It’s so tough. I break it into 20-second chunks, each of which will be 30rpm of the legs, if I maintain my strength. It’s difficult to even count. The music is blaring. I’m probably kicking out something like 500-600 watts. It passes. I am hanging off the bike when it’s over.
The view from the bike
Now for the run. I’ll turn the fan off straight away. As soon as I stop pedalling, I stop producing body heat and I get cold very quickly. Wearing clothes that are saturated with sweat doesn’t help either, and I don’t need a fan blowing cold air on me. I’ll basically strip off in the garage, towel myself down quickly, grind my teeth against the cold, get clean dry gear on as quickly as possible, and within three minutes I’ll be running. I’ll do 30 minutes, that’ll be about 5 miles. When running, there is a bit more mental stimulation – you have to look where you are going and be alert to the surroundings. The run isn’t actually that tough. These post-bike runs are done at Ironman marathon pace, around 7 minutes per mile. I’d say right now I could run a 10K in about 32 minutes, at around 5:15 minutes per mile. So 7 minute miling feels easy. It’s cold though, and dark, and wet, and 9pm, and I’m hungry and fatigued after the bike. The 30 minutes passes, and I go straight inside for a banana, a fistful of spinach and a protein milkshake. This will be followed immediately by a shower and some stretching, and then dinner, a few vitamin tablets, and bed. That will be one more day in the bank, one more little bit of fitness gained, 5-and-a-half more months to go…
This week my pain cave has been particularly painful as my back has flared up again. I thought it was better, but I did a tough run session mid-week and afterwards, my back got stiff again. I haven’t been following any of my bikes with runs this week to try to give my back a break and allow it to recover, and I also haven’t been doing any weights for the same reason. This is disappointing, but hopefully the back will ease. Normally, I would be at the end of a 2-week cycle of training and looking forward to an easier week next week, which would really help my back. But it looks like I will be going to Norway with work the week after next, and while in Norway I won’t have as much control over my training, so I will try to make the Norway week an easier week and continue to train next week and manage my back as best I can.
Training this week was as follows:
Monday 3rd Feb: Rest
Tuesday 4th Feb: 1 hour 10 minutes turbo (with 1 hour hard)
Wednesday 5th Feb: Swim 3.3km (with hand paddles/pull buoy/band drills)
Thursday 6th Feb: Run 7 miles (14 hill sprints of 1 minute each, jog back to recover)
Friday 7th Feb: Rest
Saturday 8th Feb: 2 hours 5 minutes turbo (increasing resistance every 15 minutes)
Sunday 9th Feb: Swim 3.3km (with 14 x 200m sprints)
Swim 6.6km, Bike 70 miles, Run 7 miles
These totals are really poor, but there is still a long way to go and once the back gets better, I will build and build. On the plus side, I haven’t had any more bother with the arch of my left foot…
Tuesday 4th Feb: 1 hour 10 minutes turbo (with 1 hour hard)
Wednesday 5th Feb: Swim 3.3km (with hand paddles/pull buoy/band drills)
Thursday 6th Feb: Run 7 miles (14 hill sprints of 1 minute each, jog back to recover)
Friday 7th Feb: Rest
Saturday 8th Feb: 2 hours 5 minutes turbo (increasing resistance every 15 minutes)
Sunday 9th Feb: Swim 3.3km (with 14 x 200m sprints)
Swim 6.6km, Bike 70 miles, Run 7 miles
These totals are really poor, but there is still a long way to go and once the back gets better, I will build and build. On the plus side, I haven’t had any more bother with the arch of my left foot…
No comments:
Post a Comment