TRAINING CORNER
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Voler E-Mail List member Barbara Belli is our 61st winner of a $20 Voler gift certificate! Her training question that follows was answered by Peg Labiuk (nee Peggy Maass), a colleague of Marilyn Trout, and a certified NCCP level 3 coach with a career in international road and track racing. She is a World Championship medalist, World Record holder, U.S. Olympic Team member, former British national team coach and Kreb's Cycle co-founder (British Columbia, Canada).
Red Light, Green Light : Everyday Example of Anaerobic Wor
Hi Coach,
Why does it seem easier to maintain a consistent high level of intensity (for example a 10 min climb at VO2 max HR ) than pushing hard along a street to achieve VO2max HR, only to hit a red light, and then having to repeat the process all over again?
I hope that question makes sense!
Many thanks,
Barbara
Dear Barbara,
The harder effort you perceive when accelerating multiple times vs. steady state is indeed real. With the multiple accelerations you are producing more lactic acid in a shorter time. That’s likely what makes you feel the hurt more.
Barbara, you are currently using heart rate to measure these two very different efforts. The steady state seated climb is aerobic, below your anaerobic threshold. The traffic intervals are flat accelerations that are closer to anaerobic efforts. Remember “anaerobic” means working without oxygen, so watching your heart rate works better for the aerobic effort than a muscle, not cardio-based workout. This is exactly where power meters are favored for monitoring workouts over HR monitors. There is lag time until heart rate increases. With power output, the effort displayed is of the immediate work produced. Take a look at the graphs below, found on the SRM website. You can see the green line representing power in watts. The line is very spiky, looking like the traffic light accelerations would, about a minute effort then resting for about 30 seconds repeatedly. The corresponding red line shows the Heart Rate gradually increasing, as a more smooth line. You’d get a similar HR line from your 10 minute climb. However, if you added up the cumulative wattage needed to create those HR responses, the short spiky intervals total would be mountainous compared to your 10 min. climb. That means that calories burned would be higher too. There is the mental side of things too. It may be easier for you to sustain effort than get up out of the saddle and accelerate all those times.
I like the visual depiction of rides you get with power meter graphs. If you compare your body positions on the bike you can see the differences too: in traffic you are going from a full, foot down stop to out of the saddle sprinting back up to speed. You use your arms more and sway the bike as you stomp on the pedals. When climbing steady state you are seated and arms, body, and bike movements are subdued. Can you see the energy consumption differences? You may also be better trained at the steady state climbs so your traffic light intervals feel harder by comparison.
Another application for the power meter is to give immediate feedback so you know if you are starting a steady state effort too fast. If you did a hard standing start and went over your lactate threshold, you’d pay with your HR peaking more quickly and your precious reserves of muscle glycogen being spent too soon in a time trial. As with any tool, it is best when the information is combined, like having power and heart rate readouts together. Then you can monitor increases in power at the same heart rate. This would manifest as pedaling a harder gear or increased cadence, netting a faster speed as shown in the second SRM graph. Most cyclists are able to monitor speed and cadence, and should also know what gear they are using. So while it’s not necessary to have a power meter, your example highlights the instances when you are comparing apples to oranges, aerobic to anaerobic, and need another method to monitor.
Ride on,
Coach Peg
