Notable Absence

[Robh]

Michelle has a coach who should help her spot all these things?

[Paul H]

cant imagine all that rain is helping much.

[Keith]

[quote="Paul H"]cant imagine all that rain is helping much.

[Michelle]

Adam, I have yet to write down the things that happened and when they happened. But I think that whatever I got that I couldn't shake off ( ie the virus which is the 'trigger' for Post Viral Fatigue ) came after a really heavy workload, my last Base training session before the Build period started. It wasn't high intensity stuff, it was just an awful lot of training - about 25 hours over 10 days. This may have something to do with it.

Or maybe I am just prone, because I had a lot of trouble last year throwing off a virus I got in July which didn't go for 6 weeks. I remember doing La Marmotte and I got a bit of a cough about two weeks before hand and I was on the echninacea then. And I took that for ages, till the end of August.

Then I think I was a bout to get something when Keith and I were supposed to go to the Isle of Wight, at the beginning of October. I remember feeling a bit ropey then and taking echinacea from then - October - till the end of December, must have felt like I needed to fight something off for about 3 months.

Cripes.....looking at it like that, it doesn't make good reading.

[-Adam-]

Thats what I mean, when you break it down, theres reasons why everything happens.

25 hours in 10 days? I don't think I ever did 25 hours in 10 days at any point over the winter, and I probably have more time to do nothing after (i.e recover).

[-Adam-]

It's probably not riding at LBP-20 Sean, it's more likely to be the sheer volume of training time. So... I think you're probably safe

[Michelle]

I know, I hadn't really clocked how 'under the weather' I had been till just now when I was writing it all down.

In fairness, Huw was convinced I was not reacting well to the high intensity stuff he was throwing at me before and after La Marmotte. But I think that there were some obvious problems and some decrease in immunity all of last year, I don't think it was the sessions I was doing specifically. He said that the lbp riding would bring about the structural changes to give me a much broader fitness base so I would not be as affected by the higher intensity stuff which I was to do later on in the programme.

The last two big blocks I did in January were two lots of 10 day cycles, but you built up the hours, 2 hours day one, 3 hours day 2, 4 hours day 3, then a rest day. And it was mostly lbp stuff so riding very very steadily where you are hardly stressing your body at all.

Sean, from what I remember you didn't like lbp because you didn't have enough time to train in this fashion, and because you had convinced yourself that your lbp-20 target it was an average heartrate, not a max. Your face when I told you it was a max heartrate was a picture. Not everyone has time to do structural training, and if yours is limited, then you are better off doing the higher intensity stuff like Toks 2 x 20 etc rather than spending hours and hours in the saddle.

I know it was only a joke, but you CAN'T blame lbp training for my demise. It's probably what helped keep me relatively ok during the winter. If I was doing higher intensity rides, I think I would have broken down much much earlier than this.

[Paul H]

[url]http://www.abcc.co.uk/Articles/immune1.html[/url]

[Michelle]

Thanks Paul

Useful to everyone currently riding their bike. Bit late for me though

[Toks]

[quote="Michelle"] Not everyone has time to do structural training, and if yours is limited, then you are better off doing the higher intensity stuff like Toks 2 x 20 etc rather than spending hours and hours in the saddle.
.

[Michelle]

No Toks I didn't say structured training, I said structural training.

Structured training is obviously having a plan, having specific goals, looking for specific improvements. Having some structure to your riding rather than just commuting to work every day at the same speed, and doing a couple of long rides at the weekend.

Structural training develops the structures within the body. So LBP-20 will increase the bloodflow to the muscles, increase the amount of mitochondria in the cells, increase the amount of capillaries within the muscles, train the body to use fats as fuel and to spare the glycogen in the muscles. If you stop training structurally for a few weeks, you will still have some of the benefits left within your body.

Functional training is different, and this is what I believe you are doing and what most people do. It is a higher intensity type of training and doesn't see as many long term permanent effects in the body. Ie if you stop doing all functional training, you very quickly lose the benefit of it, as you saw by being off the bike for 4 weeks earlier in the year.

This is my point, there are benefits in getting an lbp test and then spending long hours in the saddle at lbp-20. And Huw was trying to increase my fitness base because I had not responded as well as I could have to the much harder, higher intensity sessions I was doing last year.

But if you don't have that amount of time, then you need to spend your time wisely and use your - ie Toks - type of training to get the results you want.

Ps sorry to hear about your bike

[Robh]

I wouldn't be surprised if Toks is riding LBP/LBP-5/10 for most of his sessions. I can only guess as he's never been tested.

There are still structural changes riding just below LBP, your just using a different fuel to create ATP/energy if your riding close to LBP or 30 beats below.

If your improving who cares how you ride...It's when you stop improving when it matters you have to try and find the weak link?

[Roy Green]

I'm a bit late in the day to wish you a speedy recovery, Michelle. Having recently heard from a few ACC friends just how it's knocked you right down is convincing enough evidence of the evil influences of this PVS thing (hmm, not to be confused with PVT). But just reading of your intense interest in training and physical fitness matters is convincing enough to me that, however hard it's socking your body at present, your mind is still in tip top condition. And that's the best weapon against any illness. Do get well SOON!
Roy

[Paul H]

I dont buy this funtional/structural training thing. It seems to be a play on words to make one way of training appear superior to another.

LBP-20 will increase bloodflow, mitochondria, the amount of capillaries within the muscles but so will higher intensity aerobic training and in fact will increase them more. The latest reseach indicates that threshold training (approx 85% HR) is the best stimulus, for mitochondria and capillarisation. Wikipedia says, "when the energy needs of a cell are high, mitochondria grow and divide. When the energy use is low, mitochondria are destroyed or become inactive." - its as simple as that.

LBP-20 may possibly train the body to burn fat at LBP-20 but it is highly unlikely to help burn fat at Road Racing heart rates.

A "high intensity" rider will probably notice a larger drop in fitness after a lay off as their fitness is at a higher level (relative to there max fitness level) so will have lost more mitochondria etc. There is no structural differance of LBP-20 Mitochondria and LBP+10 Mitochondria just fewer numbers. 300w x 10% = 30w, 200w x 10% = 20w.

[quote="Michelle"]No Toks I didn't say structured training, I said structural training.
Structural training develops the structures within the body. So LBP-20 will increase the bloodflow to the muscles, increase the amount of mitochondria in the cells, increase the amount of capillaries within the muscles, train the body to use fats as fuel and to spare the glycogen in the muscles. If you stop training structurally for a few weeks, you will still have some of the benefits left within your body.