Cyclosport Blogger - David Kirkby Profile:
Age: 46
About: Professionally responsible for the funds management business with Valad Property Group. Just as happy riding a bike, road or mountain. Australian by nationality and now settled in Surrey, David is married with two teenage sons and rides when he can, occasionally commuting to the work. Having completed many long distance cycling event and various sports of the years, David is going back to basics this year with F.I.T The team at F.I.T are going to work with David on a fitness plan which riders will be able to follow via a blog by both David and the F.I.T professionals.  The aim being to provide a guide to what riders need to consider in both being able to complete the event, but also their general fitness needs. David has also started a charity cycling event in Australia, covering 1000kms each year, called tour de Kids now in its tenth year.

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Hi, I'm David. Over the next five months I will be writing a blog on my training for Cyclosport. However, this year is different to most years for me; I have some professional guidance from a sponsor, F.I.T

I’m 46 years old, devilishly (ahem) good looking but I’ve popped on a few kilos over the last few months with end of year merriment. I have done a little training over that period, with two runs one swim and a few mountain bike rides during the big freeze we experienced. My fitness is on a sliding scale downwards.

I’ve come back from a holiday skiing so the legs feel strong and I recognise that my aerobic fitness needs some work. The body is in fair shape with a few minor creaks and groans, and after riding the lower back feels stiff and I get quite tired between the shoulder blades.

My flexibility is pretty good. I have a busy schedule with a long day at work, and have some time to get some miles on the bike on the weekend with two teenage sons and an understanding wife (read long suffering cyclist wife who has become accustomed to me shaving my legs and climbing out of bed before dawn over the last 23 years).

My training capacity: I can train between 7-10 hours a week most weeks, with some interruption from travel with work. From March (daylight saving and possible warmth) I will be able to commute to work on the bike a few days a week so my mileage may well increase.

My strengths: I’ve got good endurance on the bike and some ability to ride short hills, weakness is longer climbs and jump speed.

My targets: Get really all round fit while building a greater understanding of training techniques. Ride strongly in several events such as Tour of Flanders, Dragon ride as well as The London-Paris Cycle Tour as a capable Ride Captain.

I have had my first assessment with Simon from F.I.T which was a lab style test to assess my Aerobic capacity and efficiency of current conditioning.

 

The things I took away from F.I.T.
• I’m a little overweight (I love beer and Christmas)
• I have some Pelvis alignment issues (good for dance moves but not bike riding)
• Aerobic system needed some work at the base level
• Flexibility good
• General strength OK so covering some bad habits which if not corrected may cause later problems
• Core strength needs work
• Aerobic threshold figures

The next steps for me were to ride the bike, completing plenty of miles with no real intensity. Sessions required me to train at zone 2-3 and get to the Gym with Simon to give me a range of exercises to help build some stability. Simon also wants to look at my biomechanics with a view to creating a stable platform to deliver greater efficiency from the same or increased power output (not sure what this all means, Chapter 2 should reveal this mystery).

Training: next two weeks target 7 hrs
• 3 mid week spins turbo trainer (it’s cold outside)
• Saturday 2 hours
• Sunday 3 hours
• 1 x gym session

The man with the mask: Kirkby gets tested

From Simon at F.I.T:

“Believing that ‘harder is better’ was David’s issue,” explained Simon from F.I.T

“Most people spend a disproportionate amount of their time burning carbohydrates and not fat. Given that our adaptive response to exercise means we get good at what we do, this leads to efficiency at utilising carbohydrates as fuel, and not fat,” he adds.

“So, through no fault of his own, the way in which David was training may not be effective in helping him reach the goals that motivated you to train in the first place!”

“A metabolic profile assessment provides a clear and easy to understand report to ensure what you do creates the results you want.”

The assessment is in two parts;
1. RMR (Resting Metabolic Rate Analysis)
Everybody‘s RMR is different and can be increased or decreased.
RMR is measured and expressed as the number of daily calories you need to maintain your current weight. Knowing this allows a deficit figure to be agreed in order to achieve responsible and sustainable weight loss, or indeed gain, over time. The generic calorific guidelines found on food packaging and in weight loss club manuals are ‘guestimates’ not measurements. They are at best misleading and do not consider your personal, individual metabolic profile.

2. Exercise Assessment
When we exercise we use a combination of fuel sources; deposited body fat and stored carbohydrates. As we start to work harder, we initially increase the amount of fat we use up to a maximal point. Beyond this point our calories increasingly come from carbohydrates until, at our anaerobic threshold (and beyond) we are burning no fat at all. This scenario is true for all humans, but it is at which points these metabolic changes occur that are as individual as a finger print and what are necessary to measure. Together, this information will form the basis of your report; an exercise and lifestyle prescription that has been scientifically measured and is unique to you.

The aim of the assessment was to identify:

• Biomechanical Efficiency
• Metabolic Efficiency

With the data gathered from the above we can now start to develop a picture of the current Biomechanical and Metabolic status. This will be the precursor for the exercises that will be needed to increase performance.

Stay tuned next week for David’s test results on Cyclosport.org…

storm

Has he given up?

Jackal

David, can you comment on the nutritional benefit of the four apple danishes you and I had at Seaforth, Sydney after our ride this morning ?

jamespiggot

Your body will continue burning fat even when doing high end efforts, once you reach threshold and start burning glycogen the amount of fat you burn will not increase any more, but neither will it decrease with the increase in the work rate. I would say seven hours a week is about right, but spread over five sessions not six

bp

so where are these 'results'.....?

Andy Maidstone to Gibraltar Cycle

Hello all. Very Intressting reading. I am part of a 6 man team riding to Gibraltar in September starting in Maidstone Kent. We are covering the 1,473 miles in 11 days for charity. Trianing is hard to fit in with work but we are all doing our best. What I have learnt is that legg speed is very important and I try to stay at 90 pluss all the tmie even if it means dropping MPH. We aim to average 15 miles an hour for approx 10 hours a day. We change our training in that Indivdualy we do shorter rides work on legg speed and hill climbing with the odd long ride 70 miles pluss. Then at least once or twice a month we are now doing 2 rides back to back of 50 miles pluss. These back to back rides are desinged to improve our endurance and mental strength of cycling tierd. The distance will increase up to 100 miles in the comming months. The points in the arguments about body fat burning or muscel burnig as energy. What I always understood was that when the body in not in the need of instant energy it will burn fat as it has time to. But as the body demands more energy faster it will then burn more readly availble supplies of energy i.e. muscale. When it comes to training I am a typical over trainer and don't rest enough. I am trying to veary my training between gym, bike, circutes and maybe a swm or jog. If any one has some positve advice for getting over the Pyrennes please let me know. ( sorry about spelling) Best of luck with your sportive Dave we may see you on some. Andy

MarkyLegs

If you know how your body burns it's fuel, then you can adapt your riding to best suit the situation you're currently riding in. Do you need to back off and rest by burning more fat or are you able to push hard beyond your normal limits? I think most people push hard and when they suffer accept it as their limitation, rather than looking for better ways to improve. Good luck mate, I'll be reading more to learn, hopefully.

Kev G

Wow! there are some seriously heavy comments there of which I don't pretend to understand all of them. What works for me is to train everyday if I can but not to do the same thing two days running. I like to do other things like running, gym, swimming and even excercise classes. I like to do hard sessions and easy sessions and again not the same two days running. I don't beat myself up if I miss a session I just look on it as a rest day but again not two days running. It is not very scientific but I can go out and do races and sportives at short notice knowing I will have a good time, knowing I won't be first or last but will always give my best on the day. Good Luck to David on his sporting quest.

Adam Tranter

My head hurts...

ride

In no particular order, I think: MikeTheBike is 1. a pratt 2. a pratt 3. a pratt

d

Hey lighten up there...

nigel smith

That great source of truth Wiki shows the following - Studies by Tabata[2], Tremblay[3] and others have explored the effectiveness of this method compared to traditional endurance training methods. A study by Gibala et al.[4] demonstrated 2.5 hours of sprint interval training produced similar biochemical muscle changes to 10.5 hours of endurance training and similar endurance performance benefits. According to a study by King [5] , HIIT increases the resting metabolic rate (RMR) for the following 24 hours due to excess post-exercise oxygen consumption, and may improve maximal oxygen consumption (VO2 max) more effectively than doing only traditional, long aerobic workouts.[6][7][8][9] Long aerobic workouts have been promoted as the best method to reduce fat, as fatty acid utilization usually occurs after at least 30 minutes of training.[citation needed] HIIT is somewhat counterintuitive in this regard, but has nonetheless been shown to burn fat more effectively.[citation needed] There may be a number of factors that contribute to this, including an increase in RMR, and possibly other physiological effects.[citation needed] High-intensity interval training has also been shown to improve athletic performance. For already well-trained athletes, improvements in performance become difficult to attain and increases in training volume can potentially yield no improvements. Previous research would suggest that, for athletes who are already trained, improvements in endurance performance can be achieved through high-intensity interval training. A recent study by Driller[10] showed an 8.2 second improvement in 2000m rowing time following 4 weeks of HIIT in well-trained rowers. This equates to a significant 2% improvement after just 7 interval training sessions. The interval training used by Driller and colleagues involved 8 x 2.5 minute work bouts at 90% of vVO2max, with individualized recovery intervals between each work bout. Recently it has been shown that two weeks of HIIT can substantially improve insulin action in young healthy men.[11] HIIT may therefore represent a viable method for prevention of type-2 diabetes

fat gaz

you need to look up beta oxidation in your biochemistry manual

MikeTheBike

Hello David While I am at ti I will be very interested in your progress. In no particular order, I think: 1. you may end up overtraining 2. you may end up wasting a lot of your time 3. 6 training sessions a week is far too many 4. Quality is better than quantity 5. Heart rate (zonal) traing is not relaible 7. Your heart rate will be affected by many things other than just how hard you are working; youcannot reproduce traing sessions on that basis 8. Rest is more important than work 9. Sportive riding is fast but it is not racing 10. You need endurance more than speed 11. two-hour and three-hour rides are not much use for six- or seven-hour sportives; try audax 12. Riding without intensity is a waste of time 13. A second consecutive day of riding is a waste of time because if you didn't waste your time on the first day then you will not be recovered enough to benefit from the second day 14. If the gear is too high (pushing) then you knacker your legs; if the gear is too low (pedalling) then you knacker your lungs; the trick is to find the right balance 15. you need to develop high-cadence power; pedalling the highest gear you can manage at 90-100 rpm 16. it takes about 5 years to develop full athletic potential and it cannot be rushed 17. the key is muscle memory 18. if you want to lose weight then either don't eat too much or go on long rides without eating, carrying only enugh food to get you home when you hit the wall with fuel exhaustion 19. forget about doing silly things like riding in a steam-filled bathroom wearing an oxygen mask; that's for has-beens, wannabees, and never-will-bees 20. Enjoy yourself and don't start on a training regime that you have to force yourself keep up

MikeThe Bike

I am interested in the idea of using fat before carbohydrate. Although I have read this a couple of times before it does not seem very scentific to me. Accorcing to the biochemistry that I learned, cells can only respire glucose (carbo); fat has to be converted o glucose carbo before it can be used. It takes the body time to convrt fat to usable fuel (glucose) so I can't see how you will burn fat if you have a ready store of carbo. I would be more pursuaded if the argument went that you started to use fat when your carbo was all used up. Thus, to lose fat weight, go on long rides to first exhaust your carbo store; then continue the ride without taking in any carbo thus forcing your body to use fat. All nutrition theories are empirical - based on practical experimets; they cannot be "proved" from first principles. Can anyone provide reference(s) to the research that concluded you burn fat before carbo? Thanx. michael.ellison@blueyonder.co.uk

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