TRIATHLON PHYSIOLOGY FOR DUMMIES AND THE TENDENCY TOWARD THE MEAN

Third part

I read a beautiful summary about training.  Teaching physiology requires a practical language and empirical research.  The theories do not matter if we do not have something tangible, something real, because we want real results and answers.  Josh Horowitz, in www.pezcycling.com was brave enough to distance himself from many things and many people.  As human beings we tend to have monuments of our heroes, I have in my house the mill that my father used for mining to search for gold.  He was living his dream, searching for gold; it was his time.  It has nothing to do with alchemy; it was plain work on milling stones to obtain gold, more than 50 years ago.  I also look for gold, but “my milling stones” are athletes to obtain gold.  I kept his mill at the home I inherited as a monument. The monument reminds me that we can do it, but at the same time limit us; the swimming pool is shorter.

Santo Domingo Oaxaca

One interval per workout.

High Spin (H.S.) – This is an interval that you will do almost every week for the entire three months and it is the only interval that crosses the different training cycles so that tells you how important it is. The High Spin interval, otherwise known as No Load Revving is done with almost no tension on the pedals. So a flat road in your easiest gear is perfectly fine. If you’ve never done one before, start at 100 rpm. You can inch it up until you start rocking a bit in the saddle and then back it off just a notch. The target cadence is going to be 120 to 140 rpm.

These are zone 2 intervals but don’t worry if your heart rate goes all the way to zone 4 when you start. The body adapts incredibly quickly to these. You’ll notice that your heart rate will drop dramatically after the first few sessions, even at a higher cadence and speed. Because of the high cadence, you can actually do these on your easy recovery days or your endurance days. During this first phase we will limit these to 10 minutes, as we don’t want your speed to peak too early….

 Also, keeping a nice steady pedal stroke with a still upper body is key. This is going to be the same pedal stroke that when sped up to over 100 rpm is going to give you peak cycling performance. If it’s not close to perfect at 50 rpm then it’s going to be a real mess when you get up to 130.….

It is very difficult to grow old knowing that many things we do in cycling are not the best for our performance because of the monuments we have to keep.  Jacques Lacan said: “Love is the reason we invented the unconscious.”  That is why Freud threw him from the Olympus of Psychiatry.  But it is the best we learned from our teachers and we are too obedient to challenge everything.  Josh has the best review I found in the web.  Practice spinning and increase your power without decreasing the rpm and not the opposite.  Start from 105 rpm and add force steadily and not the opposite.  This should be called reverse periodization in the full sense.  There is no way to patent it but it will be the way of training few years from now.  Forget about the energy systems.  The body adapts to anything as long as you give nutrients and recovery.  Good for Josh.