The exercise ones body gets while cycling is generally linked with an increase in health and well being. According to studies carried about by the World Health Organization, lack of physical activity is second only to smoking tobacco as a serioud health risk in developed countries, and consequently many tens of billions of dollars of healthcare costs are incurred in treating this. The WHO's report proposes that increasing physical activity is a public health 'best buy' and that riding a bike is a 'highly suitable activity' for this. The British cycling charity Sustrans has found that investment in cycling facilities can give a 20 to 1 return from health and other benefits. It has been estimated that approximately twenty life years are gained from the the physical health benefits of road bicycling for every life year lost through injury.
Bicycles are often used by people looking to increase their fitness and cardiovascular health and consequently cycling is especially helpful for those with arthritis of the lower limbs who are unable to pursue impact or weight bearing sports that would cause problems for their knees and other joints. Since cycling can also be used for the every day purpose of transport and commuting, it can be easy to ride regularly and need less self-discipline to exercise.
Due to the rider being seated most of the time, cycling is a relatively non weight bearing exercise that, similar to swimming, does little to promote bone density. Cycling standing up and out of the saddle, on the other hand, does a better job by transferring more of the rider's body weight to the legs. It used to be thought that cycling while standing was less energy efficient apart from aerodynamic resistance, but recent research has proven this to be untrue.
Cycling on a stationary cycle is frequently advocated as a suitable exercise for rehabilitation, particularly for lower limb injuries due to the low impact that it has on the joints. Cycling on static bikes or turbo trainers is commonly used in conjunction with knee rehabilitation programs.
As a response to the increased first world sedentary lifestyle and consequential obesity of its population, one approach to be adopted by many organizations concerned with health and environment is the promotion of active travel, in which walking and cycling are promoted as safe and attractive alternatives to motorized transport. Given that many journeys are for relatively short distances, there is considerable scope to replace private motor car use with walking or cycling, though in many cities this may require some infrastructure modification, particularly to attract those who are less experienced and confident at negotiating traffic on a bicycle. Various cities around the world such as Amsterdam, Copenhagen and Oxford manage to promote bike use as a form of regular transportation. For these types of riders the need for power meters and heart rate monitors is lessened as just the act of riding a couple of miles is enough of a health boost.
Filed under Knowledge by on May 13th, 2009. 
Dear Bob
I’ve been racing for a number of years now and being a family man I’ve tried to keep my training to a set schedule so as to be able to give a lot of regular time to my family, which is something I consider important. Last weekend I was thirty minutes into my planned 5 hour training ride when the display on my Powertap power meter kept cutting out forcing me to head for home early as the training session was wasted. As I approached my house I noticed my cousin’s car on my driveway and the front bedroom curtains closed, even though it was only midday.
Upon letting myself into the house I could hear all manner of moaning and groaning coming from the upstairs which I found confusing. I headed into the hall and up the stairs where there were men’s and women’s clothes discarded on the floor. The noises coming from the bedroom were unmistakeably those of my wife in the throes of sexual ecstasy and although the bedroom door was almost shut I could see through the crack in the door as my wife was straddled naked over my cousin passionately riding him, completely oblivious to anything else.
I was so shocked at this sight it felt like I had become paralysed on the spot, I managed to avoid the desire to burst in and do something that may have put me in court before a judge and instead took myself quietly downstairs trying to work out what was going on and what to do. Eventually, in my state of confusion I thought it would be best to pretend I had never seen it and went back out to my bicycle and stayed out for another 4 hours trying unsuccessfully to figure out a way of confronting my wife that wouldn’t lead to the immediate breakup of our family.
Upon returning home my cousin’s car was gone so I pretended everything was normal and my wife greeted me with a kiss as she always does while watching television in the lounge. I’ve got no idea if this was a one off or if its been happening for a long time. I need to get it resolved but at the same time I still love my wife a lot even though I’m repulsed by the thoughts of her with my cousin.
J, London
Dear J
I’d just like to tell you that I’m sorry to hear of your misfortune, this is a hard thing for anyone to deal with. Primarily I would suggest you check the location and orientation of the Powertap receiver on the chainstay as this can cause problems as well as ensuring that the batteries in both the hub and CPU are fine. ‘Data drops’ can also be caused by some old versions of firmware in the Powertap CPUs which need to be upgraded to the latest version. This is an easy procedure to do by getting in touch with Powertap direct and should hopefully ensure you don’t have any more wasted training sessions.
All the best
Bob
Filed under Knowledge by on May 8th, 2009.
If you are the sort of person who loves knowing what's going on inside your body, what's going on with your aerodynamics and what's really happening in a race then you will absolutely love having a power meter. However if you are the sort of person who prefers to just ride along steadily remaining oblivious to many variables then power meters probably aren’t for you.
When you first get a power meter you will want to fit it to your bike and go out cycling straight away. This is a good idea but ensure it is fitted professionally – SRM power meters need to be fitted correctly to the bottom bracket and Powertap power meters need to be built into a new back wheel. Both of these power meters will need the digital display unit fitted to the handlebars and connected, either wirelessly or through wires to the power measuring component of the power meter.
The first thing to do when you get your power meter is to just ride as you would normally for a couple of weeks or so. Don’t adapt your training, just check your display and stats on your home PC to start mentally making the correlation between what your regular efforts feel like and what wattage figures you are putting out. This will help you integrate power meter training into your general training routine. You’ll get used to seeing how quickly the power meter responds to your change of efforts and how high your wattage goes when you make short sharp efforts.
When you are familiar with your power meter it’s time to start using it to record some important data… its time for the all out power test.
Get your bike on a turbo trainer, on the velodrome or on a long hill and ride flat out for 5 minutes. Use your power meter software on your PC to tell you what your average power output was and record this along with your current body weight so you can get an accurate watts/kg figure. You will want this data when you are planning your next training programme.
To collect more useful data you can do a power test over 20 minutes and also over an hour. Obviously you will need to give yourself enough days to recover between these tests and treat them as you would a competition to ensure you are going into them in the best condition possible.
When you have your first road race with a power meter keep it recording all the stats throughout the race so you can see how many watts was required from you when the bunch was chasing breaks, when it was windy, when you were sheltered and when you were in a break. The results can be quite surprising and with the data from your power meter you can train for these race specific requirements more accurately.
If you are a time trailers or triathlete you can benefit from additional aspects of power meters if you have got access to an indoor velodrome. It is possible to use a power meter to refine your on the bike positioning – you are looking for a position that is as aero as possible without overly compromising power output. The way to measure is to compare power output to a given heart rate compared to the time to do a set number of laps. With some fine tuning you should be able to get yourself as low and aero as possible to go faster without requiring any extra effort.
Additionally time triallers and triathletes can set a target wattage that has been pre-calculated from their training schedules to stick to during a race to ensure they work at an optimum efficiency. Too low and they are wasting potential, too high and they will suffer with fatigue during the event. Ride at the optimum efficiency for their body however and they will be setting personal bests as a matter of course.
Filed under Knowledge by on May 7th, 2009.
Cycling power meters are one of the great modern inventions for training on the bike. They allow the rider to measure their power output while riding. They do this by measuring torque using strain gauges mounted in either the cranks, bottom bracket or rear freehub and by combining it with current velocity and using this to workout the power being applied. Some cheaper modern units work in a different manner by measuring opposing forces such as wind resistance, inertia, rolling reistance and combining these to come up with a less accurate power estimate.
Commercial cycling power meters have been available since 1989 but their high cost put them out of reach of most cyclists. Cycling power meters have become more popular in the last 10 years as the cost of production has decreased making them more affordable to general athletes looking for effective time efficient ways of increasing their fitness.
In addition to measuring power most bike power meters will also record and display heart rate, riding speed, distance covered and duration. By combining all of these an athlete gets a lot more out of a training session that if he just had a single feedback such as heartrate or speed.
Why is this? Well imagine if a rider is under the weather – his heartrate is going to be affected by this. If it’s a windy day then likewise his speed is going to be effected. If he measures both heartrate and power the correlation between them can be much more informative.
Cycling Power meters provide virtually instant feedback to the rider through a display unit mounted on the handlebars of the bike. Wattage is measured immediately and the actual power output is displayed. Heart rate monitors measure the physical effect of exercise effort and this is subject to a lag in the body – make an effort and it takes a few seconds or longer for your heart rate to climb. Therefore a cyclist doing interval training sessions using a power meter cn see instantly when his power output has reached say 350 watts rather than waiting for his heartrate to hit 180bpm 10 or more seconds later.
Additionally as a training session progresses a rider’s heartrate may stay the same but do to fatigue power may be decreasing – using a powermeter in conjunction with heart rate monitoring will record this point for further analysis
Example First Power Meter
Filed under Knowledge by on Apr 23rd, 2009.
The equipment required for a V02 Max test is pretty complicated and expensive so its not something you can really do at home or even with a local coach. There are various private sports labs offering V02max tests along with lactate tests, some more expensive than others.
By far the easiest and most affordable option is to get it tested at a university. Some universities do V02max tests as a commercial service but won’t charge as much as private enterprises, look for universities with a strong sports science background. It is possible to get V02max tested for free though – universities carry out various research projects and this includes research into fitness measuring, training effectiveness and other related areas. Get in contact with the head of sports science or exercise physiology at your local universities and see what projects they have got coming up that they require test subjects for. Not only should you get a test for free but quite often they will provide you with a training plan or other advice related to your findings.
The v02max tests are carried out in professional surroundings, often by MSc students or higher and the results are reliable. You can expect to be on a correctly set up stationary bicycle or a regular bicycle on a turbo trainer most likely with SRM power cranks or a powertap installed to measure your wattage as well.
When you have got your V02max results then you can start to work out effective training plans. Read on to discover more on this.
Filed under Knowledge by on Apr 22nd, 2009. Comment.
