This past weekend we received our first taste of Canadian racing for 2009. We were up in Baie Saint Paul, Quebec for stop number one of the Canada Cup, a UCI 1 event. Racing at a UCI 1 cross country race is a lot different from the seven day stage race we are trying to prep for, but at the same time our entire season isn’t solely geared towards the BC Race. Some of you have asked what we do for training such how many hours are we putting in to prep for the BC race. Well in this week’s blog we will try and answer some of those questions for you.
Andrew: To be truthfully honest with you I have no idea how many hours I train. I keep no journal or records of my training. I try and start the year off by tracking miles, hours, avg. heart rate, etc. but it never lasts. I judge my training by how my body feels. After racing professionally for six years I have a pretty good sense of how to gage my body and so far it seems to be working alright. Maybe dropping a grand on a power meter and a few hundred a month on a coach would help but where am I ever going to get that kind of money? Plus my work schedule at Starbucks is so crazy it is hard to plan any training schedule more than two days in advance. Currently I believe my training is working well and I am having fun. I think if I went the high tech route with an expensive coach and power meter I would probably burn myself out.
I can say this, five to six days a week I get out for at least 90 minutes. Out of those six days I like to put in a few multi hour days. It is probably safe to say that I am putting in anywhere from 12-18 hours of training per week. Like Burns, I too hit up the gym in the winter. I focus on squats, lunges, leg press and some upper body strength mostly done through pushups, pull ups etc… I am in the gym about 3 days a week during the winter and about one day a week during race season. I feel that the strength training gives me an extra edge when the going gets tough during the steep climbs.
John: As I mentioned quickly on last weeks video blog, the majority of my training hours are filled road riding. When it comes to road riding I run a Power Tap, basically the polar opposite of Andrew. Maybe that is the “Science B.S.” versus the “Business B.S.” Who knows? Multi hour mountain bike rides are also part of the schedule.
Obviously I put in hours spinning the pedals, but I would like to focus more on the off the bike general strength training that also consumes significant time.
Long winters in Maine provide lots of time to cross train on skis and snowshoes. Winter also means spending 2-3 days a week lifting weights. Warm up for a session is usually jumping rope or rowing. Just enough to get a good sweat going. Both rowing and jumping rope incorporate the upper and lower body. I used to row, scull, early mornings as part of my strength training when I lived in Hingham, MA, but that is a story for another time. Lower body exercises include Squats, lunges, and leg presses. Upper body exercises include bench press on a stability ball, military press on a stability ball, bent over rows, and Lat pull downs. These upper body exercises, with the exception of the lat pull downs, are done all done with dumb bells.
In addition to lifting weights I complete an almost daily year round core routine that also includes some yoga and stretching. The stability ball plays a large role here. I won’t go into all the specific moves, but I will give you a taste. A few photos have been included. Your core holds everything together, make sure it is strong.
Some people may dismiss this strength training and more specifically upper body strength training as unimportant for cycling, but I am a true believer. Especially for technical mountain biking. Exactly what is on tap for the BC Bike Race. If you have ever had you hands or fore arms get pumped and completely worked over by the fourth time descending Mt. Snow that you are struggling to hold onto the handlebar, or you are having a hard time at the end of long technical ride lifting the front wheel over obstacles, or maybe your back is wrecked after a day of powering through rock gardens, strength training will make you faster and increase your fun factor. Now I know some of you are hoping for Burns to reveal one his super secret strength training methods. Well here you go. Stolen from another tribe of the lean and mean, rock climbers, the Hangboard reigns supreme. Pull ups on the Hangboard work your fingers, hands, arms, back, and abdominals, all in one move. If you don’t have room for the board in your house or garage hit up your local climbing gym. If you have any questions drop a comment.
So with some of our training habits released we figure we should do a quick Baie Saint Paul recap. We picked up our neighbor Chris Cyr Friday morning and were on the road by 9:30am. A quick stop in Waterville was made to pick up Cyclingdirt.org CEO, Colt. By 11:30am we were on our way for the Canadian border. It only took us 90 minutes to get through the border. The Canadian border crossing police made an error reviewing Andrew’s passport, mistaking him for a criminal. They searched the entire car and asked a few of us some questions. When the police were asking Andrew some questions about a criminal past, they realized they had made a mistake with the passports. The police simply said “sorry,” handed us our passports, and let us go. With our big delay came rush hour traffic in Quebec City. Our six hour drive turned into 9 hours.
The 9 hour drive didn’t seem to affect our ambitions to spin out our legs, and we spun a quick lap on the course before it got dark. On Saturday we hit up the course again for a few more laps so we could master all the lines through the technical single track. Baie Saint Paul is unlike any course in the US. It is ultra spectator friendly, technical, rocky, and tons of roots! It is a true mountain bike race course.
The race went well for the two of us. Andrew had a strong result finishing in 12th place and he was the top American. John was right in the middle of the pack, placing 30th.
Nice work up North! All that winter hiking should pay off come time to push your bike for 45 minutes at a time out in BC!