Good timing. I’ve spent the last couple of days wondering about this. My beer consumption has upped from having one pint 1-2nights a week to a pint every night. I’ve missed a fair few training opportunities from being too hung over recently and things are so hectic that training opportunities beyond those tacked onto the commute are few and far between. Equally my chocolate consumption has gone through the roof. It’s making me pretty grumpy that I can’t seem to control this but the more fed up I am the more likely I am to grab another square of chocolate 😂  Realistically at my level I don’t think it makes a difference performance wise but I do wonder where my discipline has gone. At the same time I’m failing to complete intervals even those I know I can 😡

The current episode of the TrainerRoad talks exactly about some of this – difficulty of loosing weight or operating on calorific deficit while trying to improve fitness and crucially the importance of power to weight vs raw power.

My take is you need find a sustainable balance of reward vs discipline.  Abstainence from vices has resulted in a highly fluctuating weight for me as I overindulge on the rebound, which makes me miserable and thus training harder. Going forward I’m determined not to repeat this mistake and will just learn to endulge responsibly.

As to impact on performance, well if you’re already gunning with the big boys and ride steep hilly races then I guess every little helps but I’ve had plenty of V40 guys with a bit of timber smash me even when I was lean and at 4 w/kg.

I did lots of reading on this overnight. It helps to understand the total effects of alchohol and simple sugars, how the former has many negatives – prevention of protein & HGH synthesis, glucogen absorbtion reduction, zero carbs instead going straight to fat cells, dehydration and negative impacts on sleep (which in itself has a whole load of negative issues) and the former causing energy spikes and crashes.

When you put it all together, its a competitive cyclist nightmare – any intake is basically reducing training effect and negates performance overall, notwithstanding there’s several articles Documenting the principals of a drop in training motivation mentally due to alcohol and sugars relationship to even short term depression.

But then there’s real life.  We’ve all heard “everything in moderation” and with the stressful and busy lives we lead we do need to de-stress and enjoy ourselves from time to time, not withstanding the mental rewards of doing so or the heart-healthy impact of low to moderate red wine intake.

What I took away last night could be summarise as a such:

a) Don’t drink 24hrs before racing or training (impact on physical and mental performance)

b) Don’t drink post racing or training (impact on many recovery mechanisms)

c) If you are to drink, drink in moderate spaced between a) and b) above either weekly, or periodised e.g.  in celebration at the end of a periodised goal during a rest week.

d) In general if you want to drink, ranked best to worst are white spirits with diet soda, red wine and beer – beer is very much the worst.

Although in the past I’ve gone for up to 3 months without drinking, my modus operandum this year has been to not drink on a training day, or 48hrs before a race.  Recently I have slipped – 1 glass red wine last night, after 2 nights x 2 small bottles beer after work this week) but I’m attributing that to my current mental state – I’ve been training and racing now since October 2017, I’m mentally tired of the merry go round and have 3 races to go before I get a month off the bike.  In the middle I have a mid-late August family holiday which is an authorised binge/rest fest on the basis of bring my motivation back up for the final 2 races in September and of course actually enjoying the family holiday.

Next year?  I don’t know.   I’m wondering whether to knock alchohol on the head on a periodised based from October – Christmas before the added mental challenge of winter/cold/wet arrives, have a Christmas blast then do the same until Race 1 / my birthday in March.

Edit:  Actually – added to this thinking is circa £1000 a year coaching costs.   I kind of think, if your paying that amount of money to improve your performance, why sabotage it?   Its kind of like buying a new set of lighter wheels then adding a pannier rack to the back of your bike.

It’s funny isn’t. My wife and her family don’t drink alcohol so I’d say I average 30-40 units of alcohol a year! Crazy low.  But they all have a sweet tooth so I’m surrounded by my weakness – ice cream, cakes and chocolate year round. If only I could keep sweets out the house I swear I’d be 2kg lighter without doing anything.🤨

This is quite inspiring – Jolanda Neff:

For me, drinking makes it hard to get up and ride the next day. I don’t worry too much about diet, but I know if I have two beers in the evening getting in time to ride to work is painful.

For me its a question of priorities. I gave up booze for nearly 4 years as part of my training. Total abstinence was pretty easy. Weight fell off (and i was already thin) and I felt good in the mornings and took enough pleasure in my fitness and performance to make it worthwhile

Racing mojo has slipped so I now drink a bit and take a view that it doesnt matter provided it doesn’t effect what I do the next day. If I plan a long ride at 5am I am really annoyed if I cant do it because I’ve drunk the night before.

For me its a question of priorities. I gave up booze for nearly 4 years as part of my training. Total abstinence was pretty easy. Weight fell off (and i was already thin) and I felt good in the mornings and took enough pleasure in my fitness and performance to make it worthwhile

I’m thinking that maybe I target high enough so that my races become an adequate priority, like for instance entering the nationals…

Currently I think I’m in end of season blues, with some back injuries to manage.  I probably need rest, then jump start winter training with some abstinence.

FFS.. Woke up with massive back pain.  I decide to go to MSG Rd 7 regional as its only 45 mins from home and see how the practise laps went.  I was in a lot of pain.

Immediately as I started I was in trouble as I had no sprint because doing so caused huge stabbing pains, so I just had to cruise off the back of the start and catch up as everyone gathered for the single track.  Kept going, the small  3ft “humps” to get over causing more pain than the bumpy trail as I struggle to get over them.  Because there was only 27 entrants I know if I could even just bimble to the finish I could pick up a few points to help my top 20 gridding for the next round and 2019.   But I’m too competitive : )  I kept pushing eventually to finish 18th which gets me some good points.

By god I needed a hot shower and ibuprofen when I got home, I feel terrible after also spending the whole race at VO2max.

Anyway, I’m having that beer now!!

I do wonder though if we all, myself included, spend too much time being tired.

Training plans seem (correct me if I’m wrong) based on the assumption that we’re all living like pros. For example that a rest day will be total rest. Anyone with a family will know how unrealistic that is…

I stopped training (on the bike) in September last year after a few years of fairly hard training and then around 18 months following a coached plan. My coach and I tried lots of different things to overcome my tiredness but in the end I admitted to myself that running a full-time business + studying each day + training hard + family commitments do not mix well. I was simply overdoing it in too many areas of my life. I felt great on the bike but everything else was suffering.

I’m now training as many hours but mixing it up with bike, martial arts and weights and I feel so much better every day. I’m missing being competitive in my category at races though and working towards that one fitness goal was nice so we’ll see what happens over winter. In all honesty I’d like to be more competitive again next year as I love racing so much. Maybe I just need to realign my expectations and do a little less training than I was before.

Anyone entered Tide 2 Tide?  Have tried most other bike racing disciplines this year, this will be my MTB race (as a pair).

Another Grand Raid gone, and not to bad, I didn’t finish which seems to be the normal for me, just a bit too much I guess.

102km, bit under 4000m of climbing in about 8:30hrs, was never going to threaten the winner! 6hours for the full 125km!!! But felt good going faster than in previous years, until I threw up, dehydration, something not sitting in stomach? By the time it started to settle it was too late and missed penultimate cut by 6mins.

Only other issues I could never get my heart rate up and did feel tired before the start.

But it nice to race point to point, using closed roads where necessary and the Valasian Alps are a very nice place to spend a day.

I appreciate this is my decision to make but I wondered if any one here can offer some guidance.

At the end of my first year of being coached, I’m now facing a decision as to what to focus on in 2019 which will of course dictates my winter training.

My coach says my physiology is orientated toward endurance – 4-12hrs rather than the punchy power for XC.  However, I’m not far off being reasonably ok (top 20 regional) and my training ethic and response is apparently very good . He feels if I choose XCO he can get me some XCO specific power gains yet also exploit my endurance base to support it.   I’d be the type of rider that rides constant lap times with a good glycogen efficiency rather than a climbing specialist for example .

If I continue with marathons or longer though, I have the nagging shoulder and back issues arising which sabotage me over that time .<span style=”font-size: 0.8rem;”>   </span>

Plan A then is XCO, to focus on Regionals and ride some nationals in 2019 as B races for experience and a measure with a view to switching that around in 2020.

Plan B as is per this year, focus on Scott Marathons and use Regionals as B / training races

I’m not asking you to make the decision for me, I’m just wondering if there’s any more experienced  advice you have about how to make the decision?

It sounds like it’s the shoulder/back issues that swing it. Have you had them properly assessed by a physio? Are they something you can fix, or are you going to suffer with them whenever you do long races?

At the end of the day it’s all about fun at our level (not meaning you can’t take it seriously, winning is bloody fun). And it’s no enjoyable day out suffering for 5 hours with chronic pain.

On the flipside, I reckon marathons on the whole are much better events, with more fun trails and a nicer atmosphere (especially in europe, seeing as we hardly have any proper marathons in the UK).

If it helps your decision, I’ve found myself getting my best national XC results this year despite training for 6hr marathons. Lots of training and riding slow doesn’t make you slow; not riding fast does.

It’s a good point Parkinson.  Yes I have / am recieving treatment . Doing only 8hours of the 12h in 24/12 becuase I can’t stand the pain any more is demoralising .

Likewise training for Marathons has given me better XCO results this year .  In fact it was Sally Bigams interview on the front page which inspired me to write today’s first post.

Marathons are only 4h.  I can cope with that .

.

Ive recovered well from my accident at 24:12 have kept training but have no desire to race really. Gave TIYS a miss as was wifes birthday – thankful as appalling weather, tiny entry (7 GV – is tiys dying?) and a certain competitor meaning no possible improvement.

ATM the only thing I have any desire to do is try and improve my hill climbing and, rather sadly, get higher up the Strava standings. I imagine 5x 6minute hills a couple of times a week at near vomit inducing intensity might have some benefits when I finally get the mojo to ride more.

Come and do this ADSH:  http://www.urbanhillclimb.com

Good to hear you are healing!

I had a shit day today at the Hope Marathon – which as an aside has clouded my 2019 thoughts.

I woke up very negative and actually didn’t want to ride .  Nevertheless less i started .   No issues with fitness, I stayed in zone for the first climb picking through over exuberant riders feeling pretty fresh .

However, the first DH came and my head went immediately.  There was some big rock step downs with a big fall on the side and I’m just not used to that here in the SE – plus my technical is a bit weak . So like some others I walked.   A 2k tarmac section appeared and i easily reclaimed my position, but then Jacobs ladder appeared .  Oh yes, we walked up it.  And that wasn’t the first we walked .   Having a toys out the pram moment on Jacobs as my shoes rubbed and heels blistered, I hated the whole ride from then on .

Coming to the mid point which goes past the start at Hope we we riding up through gullys.  I clipped my pedals so much I couldn’t get a rythm and got very angry with myself .   Then, I saw the cement works at Hope.

I sat on the side of the road for 5 mins but with 3hrs done and 2 to go I just couldnt do it.  I dnf’d, frustrated and angry at my incompetence and mental issues .

Aerobically is was fine, mentally in pieces.  ****.  🙁

Oh man, tough day at the office!

Kryton, is it simply your head saying take a holiday? I always find I just get a CBA attitude this time of year.

Same for me kryton I have been training for a 12 hour ride and overdone it over the last few weeks. Did the hope marathon today and had the same experience as you had to cut short to the half. That area of the peak District is hard and a lot of the climb’s are walks in my experience. Didn’t stop me getting annoyed. Every time I ride there I say never again. This time is the last!

Memo, maybe the opposite – I just came back from <span style=”font-size: 0.8rem;”> an all inclusive family holiday – after this week’s intervals and prep I started 3lbs overweight but in theory rested.   However, I am now on 10.5 months racing and training.  </span>

Pretty much everyone blasting the descents had a northern accent (in my head anyway).  I think it’s just a lack of experience of that terrain and my head was **** from the start.

I had the fitness to do well, just not the mentality today .  As I said, I was tearing people to pieces on the climbs ridden which is not usually my MO but has been a focus of my coaching so at the very least I know my fitness and climbing there .

I’m in one piece, I now need to finish next weekends last round of Eastern Region (which I haven’t trained for) XCO well to retain top 20 for 2019 gridding.  That’s the most important for me this week, then it’s end of season.

Sorry to hear you didn’t have a good day. It’s a bloody tough route.

My Scalpel race bike broke yesterday (again) so I decided to do the Scott Marathon on my Plan B bike. A stupid heavy Steel Hardtail with 2.35 Hans dampf on it. I planned to just cruise it with a friend but he threw the towel in at the mid point so I finished on my own.

Was a nice change to ride at sub race pace and just enjoy some top trails. I’m not sure a steel hardtail was the best bike for it though!

Finished just under the 5 hour mark with a good 30 mins of “stopped” time waiting for my mate in the first half.

Kryton – you’re not injured, you’ve identified weaknesses, you’re able to work on them.

Perseverance in the face of adversity takes work.

Ha ha too right!   Yesterday I didn’t want to go near a Marathon again, today I’m planning on doing this one better next year 😀

I also need to work on my mental state/chimp whatever you want to call it.  I’m investing too much into racing not be in the frame of mind to enjoy it/make a go of it once I’m there.

Can we stage a group intervention for Kryten? I keep banging on about how he needs to work on his technical skills more than his strength but he won’t listen! He’s losing more time on the downhills than the ups yet he has no time allocated to improving this weakness in his weekly schedule. His reply to my suggesting that he should push himself into becoming a better bike handler and maybe try some enduro’s to work on his skills was: “he’d rather not as technical wasn’t his strength”.

Sorry for dropping this on you Steve. It’s a pretty small community on this thread and we all know you quite well so I hope you don’t mind my impertinence. Hoping you’ll see the light and come smash up some trails with us this winter after you’ve fitted a dropper and done a couple of skills courses to get comfy with drops.

It wasn’t that bad!

The only DH I walked was the first section which was full of a) other riders walking or b) people banging down beside them a couple of inches a way from shoving them over the side and c) people falling off.  I have an important race next week I didn’t want to be broken.

I’ve also ridden ALL A lines this year except the jump on the National at Phoenix that broke a few people and bikes.

I went passed plenty on others, and got a few “well done” as I cleared some past walking riders.   Like I said, it was my head that got me down, the final nail being an inability to deal with the constant unclipping riding in the ruts above Hope.   Have a look at Paddy’s Video in the Hope Marathon thread, he does the same on several occasion so its not just me.

And as I said, I hate walking during an event and don’t see the point of carrying a bike up a 20 minute climb.  There’s no challenge other than today’s effort to calm down my blisters, I’d rather ride a route where I could stay on the bike – not withstanding you’d have had to be in the first 10 riders to have ridden Jacobs Ladder, I wasn’t that far back – 50 riders? – at that point – I could see Nick & co above me.  But as soon as once person walks….

Yeah but there’s getting down stuff and getting down it fast! I’m pretty naff at descending but do practice it regularly. Plan to really tackle it full on next year. I’m loosing massive handfuls of time to the leaders and you are worse than me. Makes sense if you’re training your arse off to get fitter that you devote equal time to getting faster doesn’t it?

I don’t disagree with the practise.  I’d be happy to go back on a Saturday trip up with some Camping at Hope/Edale in the middle – appreciate you’re CX racing though.

FWIW I know its not the same as the peaks but I’ve plenty of Hadleigh/Peaslake/Swinley sessions this year.  Pretty much one every other weekend.

Aston XC loop is particularly good for a combined intervals and skills session. Very steep up and down.

Thanks ADSH, not far from me either, I’ll give it a go in the next couple of weeks.

Well my last planned race of the season didn’t go so well. The central series has actually been really quite good. The last round was a great fun course, in the dry it had almost 20cm of loan in places which made it great fun! Give them a try next year.

My race? Well, asthma defeated me again. I rode 4 laps and strugged every pedal stroke. Races are hard enough without having to struggle to breath. That’s me done.  Roll on 2019 and perhaps some big life changes.

Bugger, sorry to hear that Si. Maybe try to get some nice asthma medication while you’d get it free 😜

Pretty bad sensations for me today, but I think I could have been on an absolute flyer and still have got the same result (2nd elite/expert). Similar to the cross race yesterday, one super fast bloke (small Tulett yesterday, Jason Bouttell today) shooting off and leaving the rest of us to fight it out for 2nd. Seems like the cross race took more out of me than I’d thought, so once Jason was out of sight I just rode around without going very quickly. Got a good gap over third though, so can’t have been going as slowly as I felt.

Bad for me too. I’d had swollen glands on Monday / Tuesday, all of this weeks intervals felt tough and I shortened yesterday’s pre race because my legs felt tired.

Rode MSG at Laindon hills today,  tough little course with lots of short steep climbs.   Started ok going into the woods top ten but at the end of the first lap my energy disappeared into a cavernous pit.  I had nothing at all in my legs, and laps 4,5,6 went by with me feeling like I wanted to puke at any moment.   I didn’t give up but just rolled around in an effort to try to keep my second row gridding for 2019 with some sort of points.  Ended up 25 of 30, lapped twice 🙁

All done for the season also. Looking forward to riding around without targets and efforts for a few weeks.