by hattenburrow | Apr 4, 2014 | Inspiration, Training
“Life begins at the end of your comfort zone.”
Is a quote I have always believed in. It has become more apparent recently after dislocating and cracking my elbow it has left me firmly out of my comfort zone, both physically and mentally. I felt like the strength was being sucked out of my arm by the weight of the plaster and the simple things like opening jars seem to take great effort.
Mentally I was fighting demons who keep telling me I’ve screwed up the start of my racing season and put myself on the back foot, which is totally stupid when I know how tough the competition is going to be.
Life has thrown me a curve ball and I’ve decided to catch it, with my good arm!
I may not have been able to get out on my bike or to the gym but you shouldn’t let the present situation stop you from getting to where you want to be.
Thanks to Giant in the first week back from my holiday with my arm in plaster, I rode a total of 135 miles on my turbo trainer in the first week, working on my endurance and pedalling. My focus was on the thought that my racing season is long and apart from my arm I am fit, healthy and hungry for competition.
When I look back it’s clear that life does begin outside your comfort zone.
My fracture clinic appointments brought great news, my consultant was very happy with the progress I had made and now I’m back on my bike and starting to re-discover single track! It has been a long a painful four weeks but I am now ready to start getting back on my bike and start my season.
Tips for training with one arm in plaster:
- Try and set it up outside its far nicer!
- Drink plenty of water.
- Get a mini fan to use to blow cool air down the cast.s
- Try and cycle sitting upright with your arm hanging or in a sling as it maintains a more balanced position on the bike.
by hattenburrow | Feb 8, 2014 | Coaching, Training
Last week I revisited the incredible team at Surrey Human Performance Institute for a vo2 max test. My last one was in June, when my vo2 max was 47.5 at a power of 240 watts. I was in the middle of my racing season so took on board the new training program as much as I could but with races every other weekend this wasn’t always easy. Have a look at my plan here.
When my season ended in September I really concentrated on performing anaerobic threshold sessions at a hear rate of 150 – 155 and a wattage of 180 – 200 watts. I have been doing one or two of these sessions a week along with hill sprints and strength and conditioning to build the power in my legs, i am now going to change tact and concentrate on getting in a long endurance ride every week and increasing my leg speed on tempo rides when my heart rate will be low and in a fat burning zone and my leg speed high. This will improve my oxygen use and my cycling efficiency.
After my latest VO2 max test my new VO2 max is 50.7 at a power output of 280 watts. This is a great improvement and i feel happy that all the hardwork working at AT has paid off! I think it also highlights the importance of knowing your numbers and working within heart rate zones as my performance has improved, lets just wait and see how this transfers into racing!
My new anaerobic threshold is 229 watts and a heart rate of 145 – 150. I am now working on my new training program ready for my first race in March.
by | Feb 6, 2014 | Training
How to strength hip flexors for cycling.
After completing Ride London last year, high on my cycling achievements I cracked on with training for my next big event, double Hadliegh the Olympic course, twice in two months! I developed a niggle in my knee mid August in the middle of my training and frustratingly had to pull out of the nationals. After speaking to some friends in sports science and taking their advice of using rest, ice, compression and elevation (R.I.C.E) with no ease on what seems dot be a very painful knee, I went to see a physio at Optimum Health. After explaining about my lack of training for Ride London and buying a second hand road bike I was assured it was fixable but told not to ride my road bike until I had a bike fit. It also was brought to my attention that I didn’t have a knee probable I had a hip flexor weakness.
I was given some exercises to do which really worked so I wanted to share them with you.
First of all I had to learn to bend from my hips, a basic hip bend should involve you moving your glutes backwards and keeping a straight back, then to stand up you should squeeze your glutes to push you back upright. This will make you activate your hip flexors instead of bending through your back.
Then you need to build single leg strength, standing on one leg with your hips level is a good place to start and also glute bridges, I have been doing single leg glute bridges and find there a great exercise.
The body weight Bulgarian squat is great for working right into your glutes and strengthening up this muscle group. Remember to keep your knee tracking your toe and your chest and shin parallel like in a normal squat.
A normal back squat develops power in these muscles as well as working your whole body.
Then there is the magic moves of pilates, personally pilates is one of the fundamental elements in my training as it keeps my core strong. I will talk about my favourite pilates exercises for cyclists in another post.
Once i had started to build up my strength i had a bike fit at Wyndymilla which was great it turned out i needed a new handle bar to bring my arms in so i wasn’t so stretched out.
I started my recovery rides on my mountain bike as i had very little issues when riding this bike and built up slowly to start with until i noticed i didnt have a pain any more, good times!
I have tried to keep up some of my exercises and realise now how important it is to do some strength and conditioning work to not only develop better cycling muscles but also to maintain good posture.
If you have any other hip flexor exercises i would be really interested to find out what has worked for you?
by | Jan 10, 2014 | Training
Keeping training momentum in the summer is easy, you jump from work to your bike and eat up the miles and sprint up the hills with the birds singing and the sun shining until late. In these conditions its easy to have decent training sessions and concentrate on your riding and not the elements. The winter is a whole different kettle of fish! To start with its dark by 4pm, the roads are wet and full of drivers eager to get home not looking where their going, and the single track has turned into a sticky mess (great in the light, not so great in the dark). This although sometimes good fun is not ideal training time and often makes me frustrated not feeling I can get the most out of training rides.
This is the time of year when my turn my attention to the gym and especially get into Spinning.
Spinning, when you cant get out on your bike is a fantastic way to get a high intensity workout of the muscle groups key for cycling. Spin classes have the added bonus of an instructor and loud music to keep you pumped up and pushing up that last hill climb which is great for days when your motivation is lack luster!
The high intensity of spin classes means I usually spend most of my time anaerobic (that nice place where you feel like your lungs might burst and your heart is beating out of your chest) with my heart rate above 160bpm.
High Intensity Interval Training is (according to a 2011 study presented at the American College of Sports Medicine Annual Meeting) a great way to improve your aerobic capacity, just 2 weeks of HIIT can improve your aerobic capacity as much as 6-8 weeks of endurance training. I certainly feel like Spinning has improved my fitness and feel exhausted after a class. After a spin class I refuel with a protein shake and a carbohydrate lunch like a brown bagel and cream cheese (a little bit of fat is good for you!).
Spinning is often a sticky hot affair so its worth taking a towel and large water bottle too!
I use the spin class once or twice a week to help reduce my lactate production and enhance neuromuscular control as there are often sprints in a spin class I try and tailor this into my training plan as a fun variation to the gym.
