Training For Enduro Ep. 1 | Neil’s Fitness Test
theguy 0 Comments Cardio Get fit Health Healthy Food
– Right. So I’ve decided I need to do some racing. I haven’t done much for a while. I did one cross-country race last year in Sireston. That’s what about it. So I’m going to do the final round of the EWS this year in (mumbles). I’ve not done any Enduro Racing for quite a while. So I think I’m going to need some help so I’ve come to Bristol. Come to BW Cycling and I’ve got a three-time Olympian, a Silver medalist, (mumbles) a five time National cross country champion, Oli Beckinsale to give me a hand and try to get me fit. (intense music) (mumbles) by Oli. I don’t know what we’re doing. I have done things like a VO2 max test and threshold tests in the past when I was a pro. And they’re horrible but one needs to wear a mask, I guess.
I’m getting my excuses out of the way. I’ve not been training. I definitely don’t have as much time as I used to have. I do a little bit of weights. Go to the gym a little bit. But no where near as much time on the bike as I’d like. So, I’ve got my kit. Check out all the old World Cup number number plates.
There are some new ones in there. I recognize some of those myself. Okay, and here’s (mumbles) bike. So, here I am, Oli. I’m in your hands. Okay, so what I’m doing is getting changed. I’m just gonna talk abut what we can actually do today. – Today we’re doing a VO2 max test. A simple way of looking at it is like we’re gonna ride an ever-steepening climb until Neil actually gets to his maximum.
And what we measuring is his aerobic capacity. So, it’s his ability to use oxygen as a fuel source for the work of his muscles. Okay. So it’s the kind of Blue Ribbon fitness test for him. Okay. How that ties in with his EWS. EWS, he’s got his short, sharp bursts. He’s gonna be doing two days of racing, two days of practice before. In his racing, he’s going to be doing really intense anaerobic downhill effort at the whole day. That’s only six to eight small sections. The rest of the time it’s all really hard, steady state exercise. He’s gonna need that aerobic fitness to get him, firstly, through the four days. And secondly, so when he does the really hard downhill sections he’s still going to be able to perform at his best.
And allow him to use his technical skills, rather than just blagging the sections. So once Neil’s done the test, what we’re gonna have is a VO2 maximum for him. We ought to get some really good training zones. So, Neil’s gonna be short on time. He’s got a busy job, young family. Like a lot of other guys, he’s probably only got three or four hours to train for an event that’s actually gonna be really long in endurance. So, if he’s got some good training zones, some good kick.
He can get the best bang for his buck and then achieve his goal. (heavy bass music) (bass chant) So, I’m warming up for the test now. I’m actually getting a little bit nervous thinking about what I’ve gotta do for Finale. They’re really big days. I thin`k you probably ride like 200K for four days. So 5,000 meters climbing. So, a lot of riding and I’ll see six or eight time stages where I’ve got good skill downhill speed. So, there’s work to be done. This fly’s pretty technical. Big hills. Nothing super steep as far as I can remember. Sort of long technical stages. Really physical. Lots of sprinting. And, of course, big liaisons back on top of the hill.
– Here we’re just starting the exercise test now. You can see we’ve got 160 watts on the kicker. We’re measuring his heart rate here. So he’s sitting here. 133, 134. That’s what we’d expect for a kind of steady state. And we’re measuring here his VO2. So that’s milligrams of oxygen per kilogram per minute. So that’s how you’re measuring that VO2. And you can see we’ve got oxygen consumption on the bottom here. As we increase, that yellow line, that VO2, we’ll see that VO2 rise. And then the heartrate as well. Once we go back through the numbers in the background when the test is done, we’ll have a good indication of Neil’s ability to burn fat as a fuel source. There’s a step change when that happens. And we’ll get a good indication of his threshold power.
So that will tell help give us some really good, accurate training zones. Step now, in the power, we’re taking him up to 180. So obviously, after the test today we’ll have a good indication let’s say of Neil’s current level of fitness. What we’re gonna do is put some good training in place. And then ultimately come back again and try and get that power up with the same heart rate and fitness levels. An increase in VO2 we’ll see as well.
(hard driving music) We’re gonna take it up a notch. (intense drum beat and chant) Just keep that cadence up. Don’t let it drop too much. I know you’re not a spinner but we don’t want to see it drop. If you let that cadence drop, the trainer will just load on top of you. All right? Focus on that cadence. Don’t let it drop. We’re going up again to 340 watts. Let’s see if we can crack this one. That’s good. Keep that cadence. But don’t let it slide. It won’t make it easier, all right? Let’s get this one done. (intense music) 20 seconds. See if you can clear this block. C’mon, mate. And then that block will all be up. C’mon. C’mon, mate. You can do this. Five, four, three, two one. Okay. You’re done. Keep spinning a sec. We’ll let the resistance wear off. Just keep spinning. Keep spinning. (soft gentle music) Okay, so in brief, Donny’s done his test today and we’ve all kind of calmed down now. And we’ve managed to look through the results. And this is basically the test we’ve done. So, this is the climb going up.
And this is his power. So we started off at 160 watts, so super steady. And as we’ve increased, we’ve added 20 watts per minute and he peaked at 340. So that’s the size of his energy, okay. What’s going on further down. There’s a couple of key points. 220 watts. That’s at aerobic base point, so AB, and that’s where he’s going from nice and chill to just starting to put his foot on the gas. We talk about kind of getting up the forest road backpack. That’s the one we need to try to raise up a little bit. Next, when we get to anaerobic threshold. That’s that really hard climb where you start to get the tingling legs and lactate building up. Once you go past that point, you’re blagging it and you can’t do it for too long. So what we need to do is when he’s doing his training or an EWS event, trying to cruise between here, roughly.
And then trying to not go exceed, other than the race sections, this point here. So, this is where you’re gonna try and ride between. So you’re going as fast as you can but you can keep that going all day. The key we’re going to try and do with training over the next months is try and get this to rise. So he does another test. He comes back. Smashes it. Maybe 370 watts, for example. What we need to do is not just get these to go up, but trying to get them to go along. So he can do work and still cruise without going into the red.
You get a higher power for a longer during the day. That’s what we’re going to try to achieve. – Neil It’s been a couple of days now since I went that day with Oli and I feel really good. Super motivating. I always think I wish I’d done more of that when I was racing as a pro. Getting tested and actually getting some training plans. He’s got a really good setup there. I actually saw Laurie Green in the downstairs working out in the gym. So there’s a lot of really top pro rides that actually use this type of training to get ready for their seasons. So, looking at the results. So, my VO2 max, which is just a good sort of indicator of my overall fitness, that’s now 54. Compare that to my VO2 max three years ago when I was still racing pro.
That was 69. So I’ve dropped quite a lot. I don’t think it’s unexpected. For instance, I know that I’ve not been training anything like I used to. It’s a bit more haphazard now when I do it. I try and ride at least a couple of hours a week. It’s definitely harder now. I don’t ride, definitely, as much as I used to. I know it looks like I still ride a lot, but I’ve got family commitments. Obviously, doing this job takes up a lot of my time. So now I do need to find the time to train for Finale. Going to the other results, my threshold is now. My threshold power, I should say, is now 270 watts. Again, that used to be 310 watts when I was a pro. I last got tested four years ago for that one. So, it’s dropped quite considerably, but Oli’s given me a good idea of the sort of training I need to do. So, a lot of training in the low zones. So, like Oli said, I need to work on that. Burning fat. So I can do that for longer. So I don’t get super tired and burn all my carbs when it comes to the EWS Finale.
So I need to do lots of training in the lower zone and training to get my threshold up, as well. So, zones two and zones four. So Oli’s gonna give me a training plan so I can work on that and hopefuly get round Finale. As to what else I need to work on, I think really it’s a case of skills, as well. I don’t ride as much as I used to. So, I need to get on my road bike. Do those lower trainings (mumbles). I need to spend a good amount of time on a mountain bike to make sure I can ride those stages and be as fast as possible.
So at the moment my training really, like I said, it’s haphazard. It sort of consists of an hour or two on the turbo trainer on (mumbles) in a week. I try to ride cross-country the weekends. When I work with Oli I’m going to set the bar a little bit higher. I’m going to try to do three hour sessions in a week around work. So I’m going to try to do a fasted ride one morning and then a couple of turbo sessions and then I need a three-hour ride a weekend either on a road bike on on a cross-country bike. (mumbles) and there’s two things. So my aerobic base so I can burn fat for longer and then really work on my threshold power.
Like Oli said, at the moment if I tried to ride those stages or even the liaisons, I’m gonna get above that aerobic zone and I’m gonna start burning my carbs too quick and I’m never gonna last a day. So I know I’ve got a couple of big days coming in Finale. I’ve got time to prepare. So, let’s get to it. There’ll be more videos following up on this one soon. I’ve got like a training program coming from Oli.
I’ll let you know how I get on. I’ve got some power meters and software, like training peaks. I’ll show you how I’m going to try to achieve those training goals. I’ve also got a really cool bike coming for the race in Finale. So I’ll let you know when I can about that. So keep your eyes peeled on Channel. And if you want to se an old video I did on a bike training for Enduro when I was fit, tick up there. Give thumbs up if you like this style of bloggy video following me trying to race the EWS. Don’t forget to hit that subscribe button. .
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