Wind

I went to a seminar at bikin' Mike's once, about endurance cycling.  One question asked was "how do you handle the wind,"   Mike smiled and replied, "You can conquer a mountain, but you can't conquer the wind. All you can do, is embrace it."  Suck.

Yesterday, was a lesson in just that. I try to focus on a few technical aspects before I start my serious training. One is form. Because i sit more forward on a road bike than most people, due to not having much cartilage left in my knees, my feet tend to point, instead of staying in a neutral position. This means I have to pull up and my shin muscles have to strengthen.  Keeping my back straight, and focusing on climbing by staying in the saddle is another aspect. The biggest, however, is cadence. I've experienced first hand the benefits of cadence training, and I'm a big believer in it.

Yesterday's ride was to focus on keeping the cadence above 90 and pushing towards 105. Not practicing ladder tech, but more just trying to keep spinning aerobically.  I was planning on one lap, but the competitive nature in me wants to push it. I decided a West Side lap. 

West Side intervals start at the paddle boat hill and end at the exit behind Mockingbird.  The tough part, is going back south, the headwinds are at the worst.  AS opposed to the other side of the lake, the windward side, the wind is blocked by the houses, but it's still there. On the leeward side, the west side, you get smacked harder coming off the lake.  It's a beating.

To mentally handle this challenge, i try to think of it as resistance training. After all, this is north texas, and it's notorious for windy bike rallies and races.  Physically, cadence training again applies. If you can spin the pedals faster on a lower gear, you use your aerobic lungs and slow twitch muscles.  This saves your fast twitch muscles.  

What's really cool about the human body is that we do have two types of muscle fibers. Slow and fast. Slow twitch muscle fibers are great for the long endurance stuff, while the fast twitch are for bursts of speed.  

When your facing the wind, gear down, spin fast and curl up on the bars as small as you can. Reduce the wind resistance. After practicing this, I've found, i can cut through the wind much easier.  As your heart gets stronger, your heart-rate will drop, effectively saving your anaerobic lungs and fast twitch muscles for climbing and bursts of speed.  You wouldn't believe how you can handle the wind. If your lucky enough to be cycling with a partner, or group, even better, as getting into the slipstream will save you even more energy.

With these two sets of muscle fibers, you can also practice active recovery methods. For example, stair stepping your cadence training helps you beef up those fast twitch muscles.  If you're in a pace group, and suddenly they surge, and you don't stay on the wheel, you'll get air between you. You're only options are to either burst  your speed to stay on the wheel, or get dropped. Getting dropped is the kiss of death. They're gone, and you've no hope of catching them without expending a huge amount of energy.(Unless of course, they hit a hill and you can catch em them).

Once you burst, you can settle back into  your slow twitch muscles, and recover your fast twitch. It's all pretty cool. 

Now i'm sure i've probably left out a  lot of the medical mojo, but the high level idea is science and it's sound. I went from a 7 hour century to a 5. Once you stay on the wheel of a group, you can begin to sense the surge, even anticipate it, and effectively conserve your energy. It's almost magical to feel the slight speed increase, spin up, and still in the pack.  I even get a sort of high from it.  The pros do this without even thinking about it, they're so good at it.

If you want to know more about the stair stepping stuff, email me privately. As i'm sure i've bored you guys enough already.

Some other observations at the windy  lake yesterday, included watching the seagulls hover in mid air.  Those big ass birds nesting, and this little elderly lady with hair as white as snow, running into the wind, with this huge grin on her face the whole time.  I felt like a real a-hole when i saw her.  She's so happy to be outside and running. We should all embrace our lives like that.

Til next time...Oh and one more thing. To the douche bag who saw me behind you drafting at a respectable distance in your slipstream, and purposely moved so i got hit with the wind. May your armpits be infected with the fleas of a thousand camels!! And since i"m fresh out of camels, may those giant pterodactyl's shit on your happy face.  Karma...just sayin...

Clear warm skies my friends.

Find your bliss, and never let it go!