The Zombie Cyclist
Once again, I have already been in California helping my Dad. On the main one hands, this interrupted my cycling. Around the other, it provided me a chance for more reading, including a lot that ended up being related to cycling. The first book I wish to mention pertains to the most important factor affecting my cycling in 2014, looking after my 93 year old father. If any of you are looking after aging parent(s), “Can’t we talk about something nicer?” is a must read!
This biographical work of non-fiction uses the format of a graphic novel (start to see the cartoon near the top of the web page for a good example) and is both hysterically funny and lethal serious. Another publication I read was “Why People Believe Weird Things” by Michael Shermer. AFTER I began this written book, I assumed it acquired nothing in connection with cycling.
However, when the writer started using bicycling good examples in the book and referring to his recent as a cyclist, I realized he was the “Race Across America” Shermer, for whom the ailment “Shermer’s neck of the guitar” is named. The third publication I wanted to say, “Outliers”, is not about bicycling in particular also, or athletics even, but some topics are included by it highly relevant to cyclists. And lastly to the primary book I wanted to blog about: “Faster, Higher, Stronger: How Sports Science Is Creating a fresh Generation of Superathletes–and What WE ARE ABLE TO Study from Them” by Mark McClusky.
- Other things you want
- 9 years back from Westerville
- Incorporate some kind of resistance training
- Cleans or Squat Cleans
Faster, Higher, Stronger builds on Outliers and estimates from it extensively; I found it particularly beneficial to have read Outliers first accompanied by Faster, Higher, Stronger. Though not about cycling just, Faster, Higher, Stronger is approximately athletics and has a considerable section on bicycling. I find it particularly exciting when I read about an issue that has already been on my brain; something I hardly understand, or a tentative conclusion I have reached.
One such bottom line is the result of rate of maturation on performance among young sports athletes. Me and some of my competition at the end of a bike race in 1967. I am the rider to the left. Some young kids mature earlier than others. Go through the picture above. Faster, Higher, Stronger discusses many topics.
One, for example, is the impact of equipment on sports results. This is a subject of great interest to us cyclists who lust after the latest bicycles and components. One of the most important phenotypes for a distance cyclist is VO2 max. This is the maximum amount of oxygen your body can process.
This can be regarded as the size of your “engine”. According to Faster, Higher, Stronger, VO2 utmost is like height in that it is approximately 50% dependant on genes and 50% by environment. As as I know far, environmentally friendly factors that determine VO2 maximum are not known, but basically, whatever VO2 max phenotype you have as a total result of your genes and your history, you are stuck with.
VO2 maximum actually can be divided up into two parts. Baseline VO2 utmost is the VO2 utmost you have without training. As most of you probably know, VO2 maximum can be improved by training significantly. It is not the situation that if you knew the VO2 max of every rider in the Tour de France, the rider with the best VO2 max would be the winner; other factors matter as well.
In reality, above a certain level, raises in VO2 potential seem not to help that much. What does appear to be the case is that there surely is a minimum VO2 max that you must have to be a successful bike racer, to truly have a chance at earning the Tour de France.
To make that happen, you must teach intensively to increase your VO2 maximum, but you also have to both start with an unusually high baseline VO2 potential and also have a VO2 potential which increases with training much more than average. If you do not have these phenotypes, it doesn’t matter how hard or long you teach or what training protocol you follow, you are never going to earn the Tour de France.