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Cycling As A Foundation For Metabolic Fitness

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Cycling As A Foundation For Metabolic Fitness

I Make My Case For Why You Should Ride More

Gordo Byrn
Jan 5, 2023
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Cycling As A Foundation For Metabolic Fitness

feelthebyrn.substack.com

You’re thinking about how to play the coming year.

  • You might be looking to shed a few pounds

  • You might have ambitious goals

Whether you are setting up weight loss, or specific race preparation, I’m going to make a case for easy cycling.

Let’s start by defining easy pace.

  • In a Five Zone System => Zone 0 and Zone 1

  • In a Three Domain System => The Moderate Domain

  • When You Lactate Test => Below the point where baseline lactate starts to rise

  • Using Feel => Go All Day, Conversational Pace

  • Using Breath Markers => Below The 1st Deepening Of Breath

Aerobic Threshold marks the top of your Easy Zone, also known as the Green Zone

I made a three minute video to help you find it.

Aerobic Threshold is the most important marker for your endurance training.


Why focus on Easy Pace?

  • Because you might not have it

  • Because your easy capacity indicates your likely stamina at higher intensities

  • Because your easy fitness is what enables you to absorb, and recover from, all training

What do I mean, “you might not have it?”

When we learn, particularly running and swimming,

  • we have no capacity to train easily

  • our lactate increases above baseline as soon as we start moving

  • our fat oxidation decreases as soon as we start moving

The figure below is from an excellent paper on this subject

The table shows fitness and metabolic profiles for:

  • Pro Tour Cyclists - Wide Easy Zone

  • Recreational Athletes - Narrow Easy Zone

  • Metabolic Syndrome - No Easy Zone


Implications For Your Training

What improves metabolics?

  • Time At Intensity

  • Specifically, Easy Intensity

Whatever your sport, you need to train your mitochondria and improve your capacity to use fat for fuel.

Twitter avatar for @feelthebyrn1
Gordo Byrn @feelthebyrn1
CHOOSE When we start we are binary: ON or OFF We have one gear available to us: GO 1st step is to learn FIVE gears • Easy • Steady • Mod-Hard • Fast • Very Fast GO, for a novice, is usually 4th Gear, not sustainable My 1st set of gears were built hiking
11:58 AM ∙ Apr 22, 2022

Three ideas to implement immediately.

  1. Cycling As The Cornerstone of Your Metabolic Training

  2. Run:Walk To Reduce The Metabolic Stress of Your Running

  3. Shorter Intervals Focused On Improving Movement Economy


Easy Cycling

The chart below is what this looks like in practice.

I spend the end of last year riding “easy” because 1/3 of my training mix (Swim & Run) was metabolically challenging.

  • New & Injury-Prone Runners, use cycling to add low-risk load

  • Novice Swimmers, use the bike to train foundational fitness.

  • Rowers, Skaters, Skiers… consider your intensity mix across all modes.

Everyone => are your mitochondria getting the attention they require?

Below is my return-to-fitness mix, lots of Green Zone training.


Run:Walk To Reduce Metabolic Stress

You won’t think you’re “racing” when you’re chugging along at 10-12 minutes per mile.

If you’re new to running then that’s exactly what’s happening inside your body.

You’re under a high degree of metabolic stress as soon as your start to jog.

How do we reduce it?

Interval Training, with a twist

  1. Start every run with 10 minutes of power walking

  2. Insert 15-60 second power walking segments throughout the workout

  3. Walk easily at the end of the session until your heart rate is below 100 bpm

I used this protocol in 2022 when I returned to running.

AND

I used this protocol to win.

Twitter avatar for @feelthebyrn1
Gordo Byrn @feelthebyrn1
@russmcox The Quote Tweet contains an interview I did about triathlon run development and how I used Run:Walk as an elite (1:15/2:46 off the bike for 13.1/26.2) Pages 3 & 4 are for runners (all levels) who want to add Run:Walk to their programs docs.google.com/document/d/1tF…
Twitter avatar for @feelthebyrn1
Gordo Byrn @feelthebyrn1
@TriathleteMag @RunnerBliss You'll find an effective run:walk protocol inside this interview I did: https://t.co/cddIB1wS70 I used it for Half Marathon bests and several sub-3 off-the-bike IM runs, my best IM run was 2:46 It delivers a faster overall long run pace and quicker recovery from run sessions
2:01 PM ∙ Nov 6, 2022
7Likes1Retweet

Obviously, run:walk is different for an elite vs a newcomer.

You’ll find specific ideas on Pages 3 & 4 of my Run Workout Document.

  • Walk to warm-up

  • Walk all hills, rollers and rises

  • Walk to avoid spiking out of your target heart rate zone

Applied humility is the fastest way to improve.


Shorter Intervals

Skaters, rowers, skiers… certain sports are tough to do easily.

When we’re learning:

  • Heart rate, breathing, lactate… spikes will happen

  • As we spike… movement economy and fat oxidation will decline

What to do?

  1. Shorten the interval duration

  2. Take whatever rest is required to maintain best technique

  3. Train metabolic fitness on the bike

Shorten => interval durations of 30-60 seconds

Rest => 1:1 ratios, or more

Lower => the metabolic cost of the entire session

  • Learn land-based sports on the flat, or slight downhills

  • Use flotation, or short fins, in the water

  • Reduce the grade, and gearing, for uphill sports

As fitness develops you will be able to lengthen the interval, remove aids, shorten rest and increase the grade.


What This Means In Practice

You must reset your expectations for:

  1. Sport Specific Volume

  2. The Amount of Intense Work Per Week

  3. Time Horizons For Improvement

Volume => If you choose a high-intensity sport then you’re not going to be doing much of it at the start.

Apprenticeship => We never graduate from Base Training. Maintain your metabolic fitness to support race-specific preparation.

Time Horizons => The benefits of easy training compound. Track your power/pace at aerobic threshold - it’s an important metric to understand.

There is significant upside from applying the lessons I’ve explained.

How significant?

I increased my aerobic threshold by 20 bpm in 2022.

Twitter avatar for @feelthebyrn1
Gordo Byrn @feelthebyrn1
Submax Benchmarking with Lactate 🏃🏻 Results compared to first lactate test in pic Material improvement in lactate clearance from 15 wks Moderate Domain focus 🏊 🚴 🏃🏻 creates whole body fitness ~20 bpm ⬆️ in AeT 1st run was July 1st 50-60 hours per month, all sports
Image
Image
6:57 PM ∙ Dec 29, 2022

As you apply the lessons of this post:

  • Your performance at aerobic threshold improves

  • You can perform, fuel and absorb more work

  • You develop the ability to recover while moving

  • Your higher intensity sessions become less stressful

Easy Pace Isn’t Easy

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