General approach
I love biking! But biking needs time and a little preparation - other than running. Doesn’t really make sense to go on a 20 minute bike ride, right?
Hence my general approach circles a lot around ideas on how to use available time and ease the preparation in a dynamic and tight schedule. First priority: get as much time as possible on my bike with the most attractive routes!
As I like biking so much - once I have time for it - I do it a lot: getting easily into overtraining and fatigue. So I try to work on better load distribution through the year and systematically use diagnostics to keep myself in check.
Thirdly I discovered many hints in the field of longevity related to VO2 Max and Metabolic Flexibility. It seems like a lot of research results can be transferred from pro athletes to the needs of committed amateures. In todays world of smart watches and powermeters, fairly easily accessible lactate and glucose tests for home usage I am simple starting to do my own tests which allows me to see developments rather than a momentum picture you get in a professional performance diagnostic I might be able to do once or twice a year.
How to best use available time
Cycling in the evening or at night
Having a very solid lighting setup was a real game changer. Here is my lighting setup.
Having my bike always with me
I am a weekly commuter mostly between two cities and I ended up having my equipment always at the other place (=> not available or planning needed too much time). Today my bike and necessary equipment travel with me. Here is my car setup.
Using ‘dead time’
It is tough to squeeze out cycling time during the work week. Also weekends oftentimes call for family activities or duties like lawn mowing and alike that make the cycle tour difficult to squeeze in. Game changer for me: cycling within my weekly transfer. Nobody misses me Sunday night driving to work or Friday night coming back :-)
Also whenever I have to drop off my kids to e.g. a birthday party I use the time in-between. It’s not rocket science - I know - it just became a habit.
With the help of lightning and the bike with me I probably get another 1000km in per year.
9 / 49 Euro Ticket - Hop On Hop Off Biking
As Germany introduced a flat rate for public transportation it was a huge relieve in terms of avoiding the tariff jungle we used to have here. And it pretty much allows to go from any station to any other station without spending time on buying the right tickets. So in theory you could do a hop on hop off with your bike. I tested it and still use it sometimes. But the reality for me was a permanent drag of trains that didn’t drive (and then I found myself standing close to might night in the middle of nowhere with a bike and no option of getting home), overcrowded trains and so on. I counted nice rides vs. lost rides: the failure rate was between 60 to 70%! So what I do on this end these days: I let me pull out of Munich from my home station Ostbahnhof. This helps my to avoid the stressful city part of my ride and works well.
Zone 2 Training
Zone 2 training circles around the idea of working at a pace that allows for maximum fat oxidation and low lactate levels (below 2,0 mmol/l). Coming from pro cycling the goal is to keep as many reserves in the tank as possible for the finishes and attacks (search: Tadej Pogacar and trainer Inigo San Millan).
Having a lot of training time in Zone 2 stimulates mitochondria to allow for higher fat oxidation capabilities (metabolic health and metabolic flexibility as key search words). Training above this threshold level seems to have way less impact or even stops that type of mitochondria development.
Through the next months I will start trying out some testing and training routines. Will be interesting to see if it is possible for me to increase wattage below the 2,0 mmol/l lactate range. Also will be interesting to observe what the result on the body fat might be.
VO2 Max Training
will be about intensity techniques
Using diagnostics
will be about how diagnostics can help to support cycling training
Activity Tracking and Route Planning
Activity Tracking
Garmin Connect: My go to application for Activity Tracking, doing statistic and monitoring. I am a 15plus years user in the Garmin ecosystem and find them very attractive. Through the years I am very happy how Garmin step by step enlarged their possibilities.
Strava: I use Strava solely to deliver information to other apps.
Route Planning:
Komoot: Complete game changer to keep riding exiting. You feel local in places you have never been before and can get completely new routes in your local area. As the planning is so smooth and effortless and also the GPS guidance with Garmin is so precise I almost never ride the same tour twice.
Further Apps to keep things fresh and interesting:
Statshunters: shows all your rides, runs and walks you ever performed on a global map and gives you many statistics I haven’t found anywhere else or would need ages to calculate them (e.g. Eddington numbers). Furthermore you can gamemefy your riding in becoming a tile hunter. The apps connect through Strava per API. You can also connect komoot to statshunters and then plan routes and tiles where you haven’t been before (needs Google Chrom).
A good video on tile hunting from Enjoy Your Bike.
Veloviewer: On top of seeing your own tiles you can compare with the global tile hunters. Nice and motivating :-)
Here you will find nerdy stuff on tires, wheels and chains… :-)