photo credit: JoshuaDavisPhotography.COM

Biking is a strenuous sport, especially when you decide to take on long distances. Long distance cycling can lead to a lot of different aches and pains in quite a few areas of the body.  What it comes down to for a lot of these pains, especially in the beginning,  is that you are using muscles in a way they are not used to being used.

To solve this problem you can do some things to condition your muscles, which will help eliminate the pain biking may cause, but you can also use stretches to help alleviate muscle aches and pains you are already dealing with.

I was reading a bike blog the other day, Bike Carson, he had posted a video from Luke Wold (of Wold Fitness in Carson City)  about some stretches you can do to help prevent low back pain after a long bike ride.  The video was great, and the stretches have definitely helped, even though I haven’t experienced a lot of low back pain, I could tell the muscles the stretches were targeting were, in fact, really tight.

What was really cool was I asked about my crazy toe cramps after the Walnut Valley ride and Luke (the guy that made the video) was kind enough to respond with some exercises I can do to strengthen my toes and feet, as well as some things I can do to help alleviate the foot pain.

Here’s what Luke had to say:

Hey Jackie,

Toe and foot cramps are really common in cyclists. This is because of weakness in the feet.

See, if they wear a stiff cycling shoe, they crunch their toes up trying for some extra power. If they wear regular shoes, their foot flexes and works some muscles they don’t normally use.

To strengthen the muscles of the toes and feet, I like to have my clients work out in their socks. This has an added benefit of fixing a lot of knee problems.

Think of a foot next to a shoe. For performance and health, which of the two should be stronger? A great foot will do good in a crummy shoe, while a great shoe can’t make up for a weak foot.

I’d prescribe:

- sock/barefoot walking and warming up when doing land-based exercises
- Massaging the whole sole of the foot with a tennis ball
- taking your shoes off at your desk and crunching a towel up with your toes, then spreading it out and crunching it up again
- adding in some calf raises where you really focus on pointing down your great toe, this trains the flexor hallucis longus, which seems to cramp the most
- making sure to drink enough water

Have fun riding!

~ Luke Wold

PS – For you really hardcore types that want a KILLER calf exercise, try one-legged hops holding a dumbbell on the same side as the working leg. Hop hop hop!

I thought it was great that he was able to give me some real suggestions to help with this problem, when I’ve pretty much heard “get cycling shoes” from everyone else. I’ve been doing the toe exercises ~ it’s pretty easy since I sit at my computer desk every day. Now I find myself grabbing things with my toes all the time, whether it’s sand when I’m out playing with Hanna or the dog who’s laying on my feet. My feet are still kind of achy, but I think that’s because I’ve been giving them such a workout the last few days.

You really should stop by Bike Carson it’s a pretty fun read, and I love to check out other places in the country where people are riding. It’s so interesting to see the different landscapes and environments people get to enjoy. So make sure you check it out, and here’s the video on back stretches to prevent the lower back pain bike riding can cause.

photo credit: Mariano Kamp

To move your fitness forward, both your aerobic capacity as well as strengthening your muscles you might want to think about adding cycling interval training to your weekly bike workouts.  This is a great way to increase your fitness, also one of the best ways to lose fat as well. (always a bonus right?)

What is interval training?

Interval training is quite simply making your body work hard for a bit and then letting it work not so hard for a bit. I first learned about interval training a few years ago when I was doing Body For Life.  Bill Phillips teaches this almost INSANE 20 minute cardio workout ~ but it works like a CHARM. I have since learned there are plenty more ways to do it than just the way Bill teaches. Intervals can be done in many different ways and what’s really cool is you can do them for just about anything!! You can do intervals walking, on the elliptical machine, a bike trainer, swimming, and of course you can do them outside on your bike.

What’s hard enough when it comes to intervals?

The point of intervals is to increase your heart rate during the “hard” interval, as well as your muscle capacity.  So how hard is hard when it comes to doing intervals? There are a number of ways you can measure your difficulty level, including figuring out your resting heart rate and then working your intervals based on your heart rate. We’re going to keep it simple here.

We’re going to use “perceived effort”. This is based on a scale of 1 to 10. 1 is you lounging on the couch, maybe getting up to get a bag of chips. 10 is when you feel like if you exert any more effort you’re going to DIE.

What kind of interval training you are doing will tell you how hard you should be exerting yourself at any given time.

Let’s take a look at some possible cycling interval training workouts.

Body for Life Interval Plan

Like I said, this is the first interval plan I really worked with. It’s simple and really hard, but worth the effort.

It is a 20 minute workout and here’s what you do for each minute.

minute 1: PE 5 (PE = perceived effort from the 1 – 10 scale)
minute 2: PE 5
minute 3: PE 6
minute 4: PE 7
minute 5: PE 8
minute 6: PE 9
minute 7: PE 6
minute 8: PE 7
minute 9: PE 8
minute 10: PE 9
minute 11: PE 6
minute 12: PE 7
minute 13: PE 8
minute 14: PE 9
minute 15: PE 6
minute 16: PE 7
minute 17: PE 8
minute 18: PE 9
minute 19: PE 10
minute 20: PE 5

I highly recommend you do at least 10 or 15 minute of warm and cool down when you do this plan, you will definitely need it.

Like I said there are many other cycling interval training workouts available, let’s look at some others.

4X Interval Training

Bryan from Biking to Live incorporates a couple different types of interval training in his training for a century ride.

He does 4X8 and 4X6 intervals.

The first number identifies the number of repetitions he does, and the second number identifies the number of minutes each interval will be. For 4X8 you would do 8 minutes of hard work and then another 8 minutes of lesser work also known as recovery. You would do each set 4 times, so you would have 8 hard sets and 8 easy sets.

When you do the shorter minutes it’s a good idea to ramp up your intensity even harder. So maybe for 4X8s you are working at a PE of 7, for the 4X6s you might want to ramp it up to an 8 or a 9.

I’ve also been told that 4 minute intervals are quite effective for cycling. The main thing to remember is you have to push yourself beyond a level you usually do. It’s key to get yourself PAST where you usually work into the next level, by doing this for a short period of time it makes it easier for your body to push past it’s current status.

Measured Mile

Here’s a bicycle interval training workout you can do where you measure your time. For this interval training you need to find a stretch of road, best if it’s relatively flat.  You will need a stretch of road that has a nice identifying marks for a mile, so maybe  a sign at one en of the mile and a tree at the other. You also want to have a good 500 feet on both ends of your mile.

Here’s what you do.

1. Warm up for a bit to loosen up your legs.

2. Once warmed up use the 500 feet to get up to a good speed.

3. Drive the mile and time how long it takes you.

4. Once you know how long it takes to drive cut some time off your time and try to make the mile in that amount of time.  As a beginner don’t push too hard, but it is interval training so you want to push yourself.  I’ve read 80% is a good number to shoot for. So if you do the mile in 5 minutes shoot for doing it in 4 minutes the next time around.

5. Turn around and get up to speed in your 500 feet, and then time the mile again shooting for your faster number.

6. Repeat the intervals for the time you’ve set aside for your ride.

7. Cool down before calling it a day.

As you can see there are many different ways you can tackle cycling interval training workouts. If you’d like to know more and set up a good training schedule for yourself thyour goals areere are quite a few books available that will help you do that.

What goals you have will determine the books that will be right for you.

The Cyclist Training Bible is one of the best available training program books. It is a year long program and can be very complicated. It is excellent for those who are very serious about becoming a great cyclist.

If you’re looking for something a little more low key ~ or just something to give you some variety to your bike riding workouts ~ including many interval options you might check out Fitness Cycling or 101 Cycling Workouts

It’s been raining here for the last 3 or 4 days. I’m not too bummed because my bike happens to be in the shop so I couldn’t ride even if the weather was beautiful, but there’s no reason to get lazy even when the weather is bad.

If you are training for a ride, whether it’s a shorter ride like the Walnut Valley Metric or something much longer like Bike Across Kansas, you need to find a way to keep up your training even when the weather is so bad you just don’t want to get out on your bike.

Here’s some options to keep getting stronger inside.

1. Bike Rollers

If you really want to ride your bike you can get a set of rollers, and that will allow you to ride inside. Rollers are basically a training device where you put your bike on and basically ride it on rollers.  Bike rollers will help improve your spin as well as your balance and bike handling skills.  Bike Rollers can be pretty expensive, but it is a great training tool if you can’t ride outside.

2. Bike Trainer

A bike trainer also allows you to ride your bike inside, however it basically turns it into an exercise bike. The bike is stabilized and you simply pedal, there is no balance involved.  It does allow you to continue to ride, and this type of trainer can be much cheaper than the rollers.

3. Weight Training

It’s important to do some training off your bike as well as regular riding, so why not take the rainy/super hot days as time to do your weight lifting workout. Make sure you work not only your legs, but your back, arms as well as your core during your weight training workouts. (although not necessarily all in the same day). I personally like to pull out workout videos I have amassed in my attempts to get fit. I will throw in a Power 90 video and work it out.

4. Aerobic Workout

Riding your bike can definitely increase your aerobic ability, but you may notice other types of aerobics will work different muscles and your lungs differently. You can get an aerobic workout at home, with a video or following along on the TV ~ you can even use the Wii Fit or another game for the Wii ~ I personally use My Fitness Coach for Wii sometimes for an interesting rainy day workout.  If you want to get out of the house go to the gym or your local Y and take in a spinning class or even a regular aerobics class. Training other than bike riding is always going to help your overall health and wellness.

5. Flexibility

Creating more flexibility in your body will help your cycling, so why not do a Pilates or Yoga workout? Both of these workouts will not only help your flexibility but they will also work those muscles that get neglected while biking, but make a big difference in your ride ~ like your hip flexors. You can find pilates and yoga workouts online at youtube or you can grab a DVD. If you want to get out of the house most gyms have both Pilates and Yoga classes available.

Just because it’s pouring buckets or you’ve got a couple inches or feet of snow doesn’t mean you can let your workout slide by. Make sure you take advantage of those indoor days by grabbing a workout that you probably wouldn’t do if the sun was shining and you were on your bike. Your body will thank you for it!