Overtraining is the result of your body’s inability to cope with the total amount of stress. Several symptoms are associated with the overtraining syndrome: Decreased performance, mood changes, weight loss, decreased appetite, muscle soreness, reduced motivation and fatigue. I guess most cyclists have experienced at least one or more of these symptoms, but that doesn’t mean that most cyclists have been overtraining.

Understanding the term overreaching
Distinguishing overtraining from overreaching is important, because overreaching is a very natural process when we train. If you take a look at one of my training programs, you will see that it is based on three weeks with overreaching followed by one recovery week. When you get to the third week, you will not feel stronger than you were in the first week, but after a recovery week with super compensation, you will be stronger than you were when you entered the program. Using a training program structure like this is what I call ‘controlled overtraining’.

Overtraining doesn’t happen overnight
Many riders use the term ‘overtraining’ for both overreaching and overtraining and I guess that is why many riders diagnose themselves as overtrained. The problem is that if you are really in an overtraining situation, it can take several months before your performance is back at 100%. If you have overreached in a period, a week or two is normally enough to get you back on track. This principle is often used in tapering protocols, where training volume is reduced the last two or three weeks before a big event. Overtraining syndrome doesn´t happen over a night or week. It takes 6 to 8 weeks or even longer to develop.

The cure is recovery
The cure for overtraining syndrome is often a significantly reduced training volume and intensity. Your body needs time to fully recover from the total accumulated stress in the past months. When you are overtrained, you have probably forgotten about basic principles of recovery. A differential diagnosis could also be that you have reached a training plateau, which is also a very natural thing, still frustrating though. I covered that topic in two posts – Dealing with training vacuum – Part one and two.

Theories about overtraining
Our understanding of what overtraining really is relies on theories that are not yet proved. Sympathetic and parasympathetic overtraining is often discussed, referring to the autonomic nervous system. In this model the symptoms are caused by an imbalance in the autonomic nervous system. This theory was made back in 1958, but still one of the most referred theories about overtraining.

Minimize the risk
As we don’t know what overtraining exactly is, we should try to use our knowledge about basic exercise physiology to prevent development of overtraining. A good strategy is to write a training diary. When you notice some of the symptoms mentioned above, then consider whether that is caused by an insufficient recovery from the past training. In this way it is possible to minimize the risk of overtraining, because a training diary implies you to react early.

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When Lance Armstrong won the Tour de France back in 1999, he showed us a pedalling style with a very high pedalling rate, even in the mountains. Many experts have referred to this technique as one of the main reasons that Armstrong could beat his opponents so easily. With a high frequency it is easier to remove lactate from the legs, but it requires a high degree of special training to be able to maintain a high pedalling frequency.

There is no definitive answer
For me, cycling pedalling rate has always been some kind of a controversial topic. I am not sure that is possible to change riding style significantly. Nevertheless, I have tried to adapt some of my riders pedalling frequency to a faster one, believing that this would help them to save energy for the final parts of the races. My conclusion until now is that it is not possible to make big changes, probably in the area of on average 0-5 rpm higher pedalling frequency. So special training at high frequencies can probably not explain why some riders are able to do it and others are not. It is also worth to remember that a couple of riders who prefer slow frequencies also perform at world class level (e.g. Serguei Gonchar). Thus, a high pedalling rate per se is not

Slow pedal rate might be a better choice
I found an interesting study that is made of Ernst Albin Hansen, who is a scientist and previous elite cyclist that have been studying choice of cycling pedalling rate for more than 10 years. In the study 9 trained cyclists rode two rides of 2½ hours at 180W followed by a 5-min all-out trial.

Test setup:
• 180W, freely chosen pedalling rate (avg. 95rpm) followed by 5min all-out.
• 180W, calculated pedalling rate (which averaged 73rpm) followed by 5min all-out.

The calculated pedal rate was supposed to result in a minimum oxygen uptake.

Results
When comparing the two setups, some interesting results were found:
• Peak VO2 was lower after riding with freely chosen pedal rate
• Perceived exertion were higher with freely chosen pedal rate (7-9%)

These results indicate that riding like Armstrong might not be the answer for optimal cycling pedalling rate. If some of you think this study is interesting, you could consider trying the tests mentioned above in the gym during the winter. It is guaranteed a good workout for you. Tell us about your experiences!

Source:
1: Hansen EA, Jensen K, Pedersen PK. Performance following prolonged sub-maximal cycling at optimal versus freely
chosen pedal rate. Eur J Appl Physiol. 2006 Oct;98(3):227-33. Epub 2006 Aug 12.

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1 - Comparing heart rate values with others

The fact is that you can only compare heart rate values with your own previous registrations. The reason for this is that we all have a different anatomy of our cardiovascular system. But these systems are all based on the same physiological mechanisms. Thus, we can learn from each others’ physiological experiences and adaptations, but we can’t compare individual heart rate values. E.g. your resting heart rate is 58bpm while your friend’s heart rate is 42bpm, still I can’t say which one of you are in the best shape nor have the highest VO2 max.

Your maximum heart rate is correlated to your age, but that does not mean that we all fit in to 220-age formula. There is a huge standard deviation because we all are anatomically different. Just like with the resting heart rates, maximum heart rates does not predict performance.

2 – Not being aware of factors affecting heart rate

Your working heart rate at the same external workload changes from day to day because it is affected by several factors including caffeine, water balance, temperature, physical stress, psychological stress etc. Thus, you should know how these things affect your heart rate since that is essential if you want to use your current heart rate for pacing. Taking action of the response from your heart rate monitor on your effort is an important part of using this tool. E.g. if you feel your heart rate is too high compared to the workload, then consider if there is a good reason for this (dehydration, too much coffee etc.) When you have found the answer, then take action on it.

3 – Not analyzing heart rate data

Heart rate monitor training is much about analyzing. If you have an advanced or professional heart rate monitor from Polar, you can collect tons of data for analyzing on your personal computer. This is an important process if you want to get the full value out of your heart rate monitor. When you get used to see your heart rate records, you will begin to get a deeper understanding of how your body works. If you add some studying in exercise physiology to your analyzing, you will be able to make better decisions about your future cycling training. And that is exactly the point of spending reviewing your bike rides.

4 – Wrong use of heart rate monitor during races

When you enter a race, you will see that you are able to ride faster than you normally do at training. It is difficult, if not impossible, to make clever decisions based on your current heart rate in a cycling race. I’ve heard several riders give up, when they were trying to jump from the peloton because they thought their heart rate indicated that they should slow down. That is definitively a big mistake since there is large tactical factor in play in cycling races. Thus, if you are lucky, the peloton will slow down and stop struggling to close the gap. And that is why experience is so much more important in races than heart rate registrations.

5 – Wrong use of target zones during training

Heart rate target zones are a way to categorize different types of training. Many riders use basic training programs where they are supposed to work at percentage of their maximum heart rate. But these programs are born to be inadequate since there is a huge deviation in relative working heart rates (Just like with minimum and maximum heart rates). Thus, these target zones should be based on your personal experiences and testing procedures, not a general formula. Also I will recommend you to not making the target zones to small, because of the factors influencing on the heart rate. One day you are in top of the target zone and the next day you are in the bottom, but the subjective feeling might be the same. Thus, if the interval is too small you are likely to cross the limits which will make you work either easier or harder to stay in the target zone.

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The Power Meter Profile Project has been collecting power meter data from riders from all over the World for the last 3 months. 31st of July is the last chance to join this project and make the total data amount even better. Thus, if you haven’t submitted your power records yet, then it is about time to fill in the form on this site. If you know about PowerTap or SRM users who have performed these tests then please ask them to submit their data. The more data we get, the more power to this study.

Read more about the Power Meter Profile Project here.

I will publish the results and conclusion in August.

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I made a short interview with Gonzalo about his impressive results in the Power Meter Project:

Your 5min maximum power went from 357Watts in week 1 to 416Watts in week 12. What impact has this increment had on your performance?

Gonzalo: “No, because I haven’t done any short races since then. My wife had a baby and I couldn’t race for some weeks, since then there have been no more races, I hope the second part of the racing season starts soon.”

How will you describe your progress through the project?

Gonzalo: “My short time power increased dramatically, my recovery from short efforts also improved, which was what I was looking after: changing from endurance races to ‘criterium’ style races.”

What is your opinion on power meter training now?

Gonzalo: “More or less the same as before, but some things have changed: I don’t focus that much on the powermeter when riding endurance sessions, and I listen more to my body, if I feel Im reaching a physicall and mental limit I rest for a week. But all in all I believe power traing is THE method to use.”

Have you adapted some of the ideas from the power meter project into your daily training?

Gonzalo: “Not now, but I will. Now Im riding endurance races, but in two weeks I switch again to short races and I will follow some ideas of workouts I did during the project.”

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Gonzalo is one of the more experienced riders into power meter training as he has been training with power for the last three years (SRM, Ergomo and now PowerTap SL). What he was looking for was a training program that could motivate him for training to cycling races of 80-90km. Motivation is the cornerstone in many riders training program, because even the best program will end up as a failure if the rider is not motivated. I guess a part of the predicted progress can be explained by motivation. A motivated rider trains harder and obtains better results than a non-motivated rider. Thus, my challenge was to motivate Gonzalo and keep track of his performance during the 12 weeks.

Focus on Aerobic Power
I decided to focus on 5 and 20min maximum power in the first 6 weeks and then work harder with anaerobic power in the last 6 weeks. I prefer to build a great aerobic base instead of just working on the anaerobic stuff from the very beginning. The reason for this is that it takes longer to build an optimal aerobic engine than anaerobic endurance. It is quite fast to train anaerobic endurance to a relative high level compared to the time it takes to optimize maximum oxygen consumption. Well, but he asked for more anaerobic endurance and sprinting power? Yes, but in cycling races of 2 hours it is essential to have a high VO2 max and endurance. If he got that, he has a chance to get home with the peloton or even make a breakaway. But if he is limited in these two factors, VO2 max and endurance, he will be dropped before they get to the final sprint. Thus, the primary goals for the first period were improvements in 5 and 20min maximum power.

Intervals
Like all the other riders in this project Gonzalo had to struggle with intervals three times a week. In the first couple of week it was two days with intervals and on Sundays he participated in some duathlon events of 2hrs duration. The following weeks were with intervals on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays.

Gonzalo performed several intervals of 6min work / 4min active recovery with a workload around his 20min maximum power (Normally done three times on each interval day). There were also a couple of days 3x(3+3)min and 40/20sec intervals to maximize his VO2 max and add some fuel to his anaerobic enzymes.

Results
1min power increased dramatically making him a much stronger rider with more punch in his attacks. Combined with significant improvements in 5 and 20min maximum power, Gonzalo is now a lot more competitive in flat cycling races. I could wish that he was stronger in sprints, but the 1, 5 and 20min maximum power will result in more success for him in the races after all.

Maximum Power Tests	5sec	1min	5min	20min	Body Weight
Week 1 (Watt)	1105W	557W	357W	321W	73kg/160.9lbs
Week 1 (Watt/kg)	15.1W/kg	7.6W/kg	4.9W/kg	4.4W/kg
Week 6 (Watt)	1148W	604W	389W	335W	72.5kg
Week 6 (Watt/kg)	15.8W/kg	8.3W/kg	5.4W/kg	4.6W/kg
Week 12 (Watt)	1113W	674W	416W	342W	73kg
Week 12 (Watt/kg)	15.2W/kg	9.2W/kg	5.7W/kg	4.7W/kg

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