I'm sure genetics plays a part, but quite a bit comes down to training and probably diet. I started eating low carb about two years ago, and noticed after the rough first month or two of riding that my legs no longer burned on climbs. (Overall speed and power took a hit during that transition, but recovered and eventually surpassed previous levels.) I've read as much research as I can find on the subject, and apparently, fat adapted athletes do a much better job recycling the lactic acid that causes muscles to "burn". Lactic acid metabolism isn't as efficient as burning glycogen, but it does produce energy. As a nice side effect, it doesn't build up to levels that cause pain or muscle damage, at least not for me any more. I can ride hard enough to feel like throwing up, and my heart will be about to explode, but my legs don't particularly hurt. When I've gone too hard for too long, my legs simply start to lose power. It feels like I'm pressing the gas, and nothing happens. (And I don't get any significant muscle soreness a day or two later like I used to.)
>From my (evolving) understanding of exercise and cycling, there are basically two main energy pathways for us humans: Breaking down stored fat, or burning glycogen, a stored form of sugar that requires minimal oxygen for use. At lower intensities, your body uses more fat burning, as it takes 2-3x more oxygen to break down then glycogen. As intensity increases, you rely more and more on glycogen. That's great, until you run out of glycogen (Most folks only have ~2000 calories of glycogen available, and it can't be replenished as fast as you can burn it.) The whole goal of aerobic training is to improve your bodies ability to burn fat, so that you use a greater % of fat, and spare as much of the glycogen as possible for high intensity efforts. I know that like most carb fueled Americans, I was lousy at burning fat. If I wasn't eating semi-regularly, I would get very hungry, and I didn't have much endurance. Regardless of any other aspects of a low carb diet, I did get much better at burning fat. I found that I could fast for a day at a time without much hunger, and I haven't experienced a "bonk" like I had before. Where I used to run out of energy after 1:30 to 2:00 of hard riding, now I'm good for 2-3x as much, without any particular energy intake. (I get maybe 300 calories from my electrolyte drink mix over a 5 hour ride.) I'm sure this isn't all due to low carb and focusing on aerobic training, but I know I saw pretty rapid gains after somewhat plateauing on my previous training much closer to my limits for shorter rides. I don't think low carb is perfect for all athletes, but for cycling, especially long distance cycling it seems to have some real benefits. (Research seems to show your peak power and explosive efforts take a bit of a hit compared to a high carb diet.) Cameron Murphy San Marcos, CA On Friday, April 27, 2018 at 10:15:00 AM UTC-7, dstein wrote: > > I need to dive more into the Dr. Maffetone stuff and maybe that will help > answer my question, but no matter how much or long or often I ride, my legs > kill me after 30-40 miles and 4k feet of climbing. I remember riding with > someone on this group (Ahem, Tony) on a ride last year where my quads were > killing me on a climb, and my fellow rider was very non-chalantly "oh, > weird, my legs never seem to hurt". great, i thought at the time, and threw > it off to genetics. Surely genetics help. But does this sort of training > help for the non-athletically inclined in terms of not having your legs > crap out on you? > > On Fri, Apr 27, 2018 at 10:02 AM, Cameron Murphy <c79m...@gmail.com > <javascript:>> wrote: > >> On Wednesday, April 25, 2018 at 6:23:47 PM UTC-7, Deacon Patrick wrote: >> > If you’re needing recovery between rides you may be riding way past >> your aerobic threshold and riding yourself into the ground. If so, I >> recommend getting Phil Maffetone’s book(s) on building aerobic capacity. >> > >> > With abandon, >> > Patrick >> >> >> +1 to this. I've been training the last 6 months or so to do the coastal >> route at Eroica CA, and noticed a huge difference about 2 months in when I >> started applying some of Dr. Maffetone's ideas. I had been doing 30-45 >> mile rides at close to threshold the whole time. Making progress, but not >> a bunch. When I finally started paying attention to keeping my HR down, my >> HR stared getting much lower for similar effort levels. Previously, my max >> HR was about 200 bpm, and almost any moderate effort would keep it pegged >> around 175-180. Now, after probably 1000 miles of training, my max HR >> seems to be about 185, and moderate efforts keep my HR in the 150-165 >> range. I don't know exactly what changes have happened, other than I'm >> much stronger on the climbs, and my endurance is much better. >> >> Hard to say how much is due to working on aerobic fitness vs just the >> increased training volume, but I'm pretty happy with my progress either way. >> >> (I was moderately strong and fast before, but would hit a wall around >> 35-40 miles and just be done. Unfortunately, I haven't even lost any >> weight. I'm actually about 5 lbs heavier than last year, but about 10% >> faster, and didn't have much trouble with the 90 miles at Eroica.) >> >> Cameron Murphy >> San Marcos, CA >> >> -- >> You received this message because you are subscribed to a topic in the >> Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. >> To unsubscribe from this topic, visit >> https://groups.google.com/d/topic/rbw-owners-bunch/pB-DU16_wkw/unsubscribe >> . >> To unsubscribe from this group and all its topics, send an email to >> rbw-owners-bun...@googlegroups.com <javascript:>. >> To post to this group, send email to rbw-owne...@googlegroups.com >> <javascript:>. >> Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch. >> For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. >> > > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. 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