Power to Weight Ratio

[li10up]

I'm not getting any younger but I still want to ride faster. I know the key is my power to weight ratio. I've been working on the weight and in the past year have dropped 25 lbs...15 in the last 3 months. The problem is I don't seem to be getting much faster. Even though I'm lighter I still fall off the back on nearly every little hill. I can usually hang with the group pretty well on the flats. What else should I be doing? BTW, I still have about 10 or 15 lbs that I need to lose.

[celerystalksme]

I'm not getting any younger but I still want to ride faster. I know the key is my power to weight ratio. I've been working on the weight and in the past year have dropped 25 lbs...15 in the last 3 months. The problem is I don't seem to be getting much faster. Even though I'm lighter I still fall off the back on nearly every little hill. I can usually hang with the group pretty well on the flats. What else should I be doing? BTW, I still have about 10 or 15 lbs that I need to lose.

don't just ride...train.

intervals on the bike. weights in the weight room. combine with endurance rides where you never stop spinning and keep your heart rate or wattage constant. make sure you're getting the most out of your workouts and that you're not cheating on yourself by getting a heart rate monitor or a power meter.

combine that with good nutrition and good rest, you'll be flying in no time!

[maillotpois]

Is is possible you've lost muscle instead of losing fat? Rapid weight loss can often include more muscle loss than desired, which would have a detrimental effect on your power outputs, leading to lower power to weight ratio, even though your weight is down.

I'm trying to lose some more weight now, but am monitoring % body fat through regular caliper testing, as well as power output testing, to ensure that the weight I am losing is the right weight (i.e., FAT) and that my power output is not affected. My climbing speed is improving steadily.

[li10up]

Here's what I've been doing for the last 3 months:

MWF - Running treadmill in a.m. Recently adding an after work run on MW. Each run is only about 3 miles or about 35-40 minutes.

MWF - after running lifting weights for 20 minutes

TThSS - weather permitting I ride my bike. Group rides of about 90 minutes with an avg. speed between 15 and 17 mph.

I wear a HRM during all my workouts and after I get warmed up I am usually in my 70-80% MAXHR zone for about 50% of the time. The rest of the time I am over 80%. So I'm getting good workouts and some "interval" work by being over 80% - right?

As far as diet I am trying to maintain a 500 calorie deficit every day which is one pound a week. I've been losing about a lb a week so I don't think I'm losing muscle mass. Actually, I'm starting to see some muscle definition.

I just don't know what else to do.

[Eden]

As I ask with all people who use a HR monitor, have you tested your personal max or are you using the pre-programmed 220 - age formula? For many people the formula can really underestimate, so you may be spending more time in your "endurance" zones than you realize.

[alpinerabbit]

Do you take rest days? I assume the "weather not permitting" days.

I'd do climbing intervals, on your "own" hill, at your pace. In a gear or two higher than you would usually go.
And make sure enough of your calories are protein.

I'm not getting much faster lately, if that helps.

[li10up]

I'm not using the 220 - age = MHR calculation. That is really off for me. It would put me at 173 and my real MAX, as best as I can determine is 190. So I'm using 190. I haven't been taking rest days unless the weather is bad. And in TX we usually have pretty good weather. But my running days aren't all that hard really...so I kind of count them as my rest days. I'm pretty good at staying in the 70-80% zone while running on the treadmill.

[Triskeliongirl]

To preserve lean body mass when dieting its important to be sure you are eating adequate protein. Try to aim for at least 1 g of protein per lb of lean body mass to be sure the weight loss is coming from fat and not muscle.

Also, perhaps since losing weight you need a bike that is better adapted to the ligher you. By that I mean when I lost 35 lb I also didn't get as much faster as I was expecting. But my position on the bike, and even gearing (mountain) was for the heavier me. Recently I got a new bike, and new position, with road gearing, and saw a huge improvement.

[tribogota]

Sometimes it takes longer, in 12 months of training hard I didn't improve that much, then one day I jumped up speed, climbing, everthing. That was after about 18 months. Maybe it is just patience.

[Eden]

I'll second the people who say take a rest day. 7 days/week is a bit heavy for any exercise regimen. If you don't take a bit of down time you can easily over train, even if you are not always going at maximum. I have both "active" rest days, where I work out, but at a low level and complete rest days.

It can start with not seeing any improvement, leading to actual backsliding. Do you take your resting HR? A rising resting HR can be a tip off too.

[li10up]

I've really been making an effort to up my protein to 25% of my daily caloric intake. I'm usually pretty close.

I did think about over-training but my resting HR is right where it should be at 60 bpm (50 lying down).

I hate to take a complete rest day because if I do then it is really hard for me to maintain my 500 calorie deficit. That means I only get to eat 1200 cal. for the day...and that is REALLY hard for me to do.

As for the bike, I have a Ruby Pro that fits me very well. Don't think I could afford a better bike than what I have. But I guess I could look into fit...but my body dimensions such as reach and leg length haven't changed so I'm not so sure that is a problem.

My sleep efficiency isn't what I'd like but I've been like that for years...I'm just perplexed as to why I'm not riding any stronger on the hills...even the small ones.

[OakLeaf]

It's best to take a "rest day" from severe caloric restriction too, so that your metabolism doesn't just scale itself down. Eat the way you normally would on your rest days.

It's not necessarily about overtraining, it's that your muscles are literally torn to pieces during your workouts and they need rest time to rebuild and get stronger. Less so when you're young, but even so.

No one has mentioned focused strength training - that's what I see as being missing. You don't need to get super muscular on the bike, but some leg work at the gym will definitely help.

[Veronica]

You've been comparing yourself to the group. Are they getting faster?

Veronica

[li10up]

You've been compared yourself to the group. Are they getting faster?

Veronica

That's a good point. After a particularly hard ride a few weeks ago I looked up last year journal and saw that at the same time last year we were averaging 15 mph over the same routes. This year we are in the upper 16's or even into the 17's. I'm able to keep up on the flats but not the hills.

It's not necessarily about overtraining, it's that your muscles are literally torn to pieces during your workouts and they need rest time to rebuild and get stronger. Less so when you're young, but even so.

This too is a good point. But I thought that active rest would let them repair...but maybe I'm being a bit too active. I do work up a pretty good sweat on those days.

It's best to take a "rest day" from severe caloric restriction too, so that your metabolism doesn't just scale itself down. Eat the way you normally would on your rest days.

I don't think a 500 cal. deficit will cause my metabolism to scale itself down...that's not much of a restriction....which is why I chose it...slow and steady weight loss.

So much to think about.......

[pinkbikes]

I also struggled with this for years. I was a decent sort of a rider in general but really struggled when it came to hills. Part of this was in my mind because I had succumbed (as a young and silly kid) to peer pressure and spent years riding a nasty one-jump 6speed cluster of gears that meant I had NOTHING that was really suitable for hills. Nice for crits - crap for hills! So I just assumed I was crap at hills and let it go at that!

But two years ago I got a new roadbike (with sensible gears) and I got into mountain biking and that was a real education on hills. All of a sudden I had all the gears I could wish for and the sort of hills that would make my blood freeze with fear! They don't call them mountain bikes for nothing - because you can't have mountain biking without mountains!

Firstly, I found that the "interval" nature of thrashing up hills (because you really have no choice but to really go for it) and then picking my lungs up off the ground for a few minutes at the top made a huge difference to my strength on the road bike. I still wasn't much of a speed demon on the mountain bike, because really I am a time trialist by nature - wind me up and let me go at a steady pace as hard as I can rather than explosive racer accelerating and decelerating all the time!

But the thing that really improved me out of sight was when I started doing weekly hill rides. There is a rotten big mountain (for Australia - it'd be a pimple anywhere else) near home where you just climb, climb, climb for ever. And when you think it will end around the next corner the grade kicks up a bit and you climb some more. I hate it with a passion but for a few months there I forced myself to go out there and just climb it steadily for as far as I could get in an hour or two. The rewards were enormous and my legs ended up quite bullet-proof (for me) and I found I could blast up and over all sorts of things on the roadie.

So, in summary, I think specificity of training is the answer. Nothing makes you better at hills than training specifically for hills. Some of it long steady hills to build up climbing endurance. And some of it hill intervals to improve hill climbing strength and speed. I hate it because at heart I am a hillslug - but the rewards were enormous and it only took about a month for it to really start to show. I am about to start going out and doing it all again! YUCK!