Training cycle climbing when all you have is flat roads

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Continued from Training for the Stelvio 2019 Adventure while on Chemo.

So 7 months to go, out of which 3 will be on chemotherapy. Trying to think of ways to train cycle climbing with what I have at the moment as the trip will contain a couple of long climbs.

• Stelvio Pass (from Prato) – HC / 24km / 8%
• Gavia Pass (from Bormio) – HC / 25km / 5%

Where I live, the highest hill-climb is 4 km long and 240 meter elevation gain at Kinnekulle. And that is 50 km from where I live and that is a little too long way for me at the moment (need to get the distance in my legs as well but that is probably another post)

The key difference between my goals and the normal cycling sites covering the topic is that I will have 1400 km in my legs when I reach the Alps and I am also currently undergoing a chemotherapy treatment for liver-cancer, so yeah that will be interesting! : )

So this is a detailed post on how I am currently training to reach my goal of biking to and over the Alps.

On the bike

So what can be done on the bike to get better at hill-climbing when there are no hills around you?

High-power, low-cadence sessions

One way to build up cycling specific leg strength is to actually do strength training on the bike. How to do it? Put your trainer on highest resistance and pedal away at very low cadence, i.e. around 50 rpm. This will give you a strength training session on your bike that will allow you to become more powerful in climbing. Just be mindful to warm-up before going all in as this could easily be hard on you knees.

Low-intensity training

This one builds up your muscles with new infrastructure needed for power and endurance, specifically capillary density. I.e. more small blood vessels that help supply your muscle cells with blood. Another boost will be that this builds up mitochondrial volume, that are used by the body to generate energy. So a combination of more mitochondria volume and capillary density will yield you greater resources to draw from.

• How to Boost Performance and Recovery by Increasing Capillary Density

Strength training

I don't really feel comfortable on the bike during my chemo cycles so I decided to pick up strength training at the office gym again.

Not all training needs to be done on the bike to be effective. Lets mix up some traditional strength training that will help building up the body for the mountains.

Deadlifts

In my opinion, if you want just one exercise, chose the deadlifts. This activates all major muscle groups in your body

• Grip strength
• Lower back stability
• Gluteus maximus
• Hamstrings
• Quadriceps
• Adductor magnus
• Core musculature
• And more.. for a full list look over at wikipedia.

Just be sure if you are just starting out, have someone more experienced with you who can spot common errors. Don't get hurt, start with low weight and just get the correct form before moving to higher loads.

Suspension Training

For full body exercising, I ended up buying one of these straps to use at home. Started out by using a apple tree branch in the garden as anchor but it felt a little unstable so I moved over to the pergola instead.

Really nice core training, a lot of exercises that can be done. How does this work towards the climbing you might ask? Core strength is key on the bike as well, if you have good core stability then you will be able to sit in the saddle for longer periods of time with correct posture and use the leg power in a more effective way. Core is key.

Lunges and squats are also nice, the idea is to get good overall strength in your body. Don't focus specifically on your legs as you will not have any use of that strength if you don't have core stability to use that power on the bike. The idea is not to build bulky muscles either so lets not focus on that bit either, it will just be more weight to carry up the hills : )

Running

Running is something that I am able to do even when on chemo, not for long periods of time but more sweet sessions 10-20 minutes.
Give your hearth a workout session, you won't regret it.

Conclusions

My plan is to continue with these sessions even after the chemo is over in January. Hopefully a combination of these will get me prepared for the Alps in June. Only planned change is to add more cycling sessions outdoor when spring comes around and my Kona Sutra arrives. Now I just have to execute the plan, even when my body wants other things!


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6 sites on preparing for cycling in the Alps

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A collection of good to know things when preparing for a ride in the Alps in general, and the Stelvio pass like I plan to do next summer.
These articles seem to focus mainly on road-bike climbing, starting fresh etc. My goal is to do the climb after 1400 km on the bike from Sweden so not exactly the same conditions. However, managed to pick up good information for what to prepare for and how to prepare from the following six articles:

sportive.com: 10 Top Tips For Cycling In The Alps
Worth the read, had some things that I hadn't thought of before.

The Col Collective: A Beginners Guide To Cycling In The Mountains
Same here, a wise man learns from others mistakes.

British Cycling: Tackling long climbs
Liked this one, maybe because the landscape where I live is pretty much what they describe it is in the UK.

PEZ Cycling News: Passo Stelvio: Climbing for Dummies
Another learn from more experienced post. A good read

road.cc: 13 Things I learned about the Stelvio while riding up (and down) it
Knowledge is preparation as well, good things to know before starting the climb to prevent some nasty surprises.

Alpine Cols: Common mistakes when preparing for the Haute Route
Picked up some ideas for training from here. Time well spent reading.

Training for a Cycling Adventure while on Chemo

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2 major liver surgeries and currently on chemo. How to train and prepare for a cycling adventure like Stelvio 2019?

It will be ~2000km in 15 days, some days an imperial century (160km) and other days climbing the alps. I need to get back into shape, get stronger muscles to prevent injury and make the ride more enjoyable.

Current fitness state

When looking at the statistics I'm down to climb times lower then 2013. The few group rides that I've been on I'm slower then the beginners up the climbs. I still have some endurance left though so I can roll distances (or my brain is used to the pain), even though the speeds are much lower.
Nothing strange here, I have cancer and undergoing treatments that impact my body, the surgeries alone can be seen as major trauma, the body reacts the same.. Twice in 4 months.

When the surgery wound on my chest was healed in end of July and I was able to start training again and even with the improvements I've made since then I'm in a really bad shape at the moment.

During the 14 day chemo cycles

During these I'm pretty much just happy when I do something, anything each day. Can be 10-20 minutes. Just move. Anything counts. So far I've done some short runs, intervals, strength training, or just watch YouTube on the trainer. As I said, there is no real goal during the chemo cycle. The doctors want me to train as recent studies seem to point out that training helps with the side effects. So that is what I do.

For example, during cycle 3 I did:

• Day 1: Rest day
• Day 2: 30 minutes threshold (Zone 4) on the trainer. 
• Day 3: Run 1.3 km. 
• Day 4: Run 1.3 km
• Day 5: Rest day
• Day 6: Rest day
• Day 7: 13 minutes moderate (Zone 2) on the trainer
• Day 8: Rest day
• Day 9: 14 minutes moderate (Zone 2) on the trainer
• Day 10: Run intervals. 650 m warmup, 3x200m max
• Day 11: Run 1.3 km
• Day 12: 15 minutes threshold (Zone 4) on the trainer
• Day 13: Rest day
• Day 14: Rest day

Quite happy with that, a workout on 8 of 14 days.

During the rest weeks from chemo

The plan is to put in the efforts here, when the body doesn't process the medication it has more energy that can be put into training

Low intensity workouts

Minimum of 1.5 hours on the trainer at low intensity (Zone 1 or 2). These are the workouts that build endurance, we will be on our bikes for around 8 hours per day on the trip. 1.5 to 2 hours in training at this point (over 6 months to go) will help break in your body. Also, low intensity training uses fat as fuel and you need to build up that ability to burn fat at low intensities. If you only do high intensity workouts, a longer trip will burn you out if you aren't used to switching over to fat. That switch happens after around 2 hours independently of what type of activity you do. So better prepare your body for it.

Low intensity is when you are able to breath through your nose without any effort, if your breathing starts to deepen put on a lower gear and go a bit easier. For a longer workout, what starts out as easy the first 10 minutes may change over time and become high-intensive after one hour mark so be sure to adapt to that change.

More reading on low intensity training

• breakingmuscle.com: Low Intensity Training For High Intensity Sports
• livestrong.com: The Effects of Low-Intensity Cardio
• bicycling.com: Why Cyclists Should Be Base Training

High-Intensity Interval Training (HIIT)

Short, sweet sessions that make a lot of impact. With hearth rate through the roof, these are sessions are the total opposite of the low intensity sessions, they do not take that long time but you feel them for the rest of the day.


More sites on HIIT sessions:

• Daily Burn: The Do-It-Anywhere HIIT Workout You Need to Try
• Ace Fitness: 8 Reasons HIIT Workouts are So Effective
• Bicycling.com: The Best HIIT Workouts for Cyclists

As an example my last rest week from chemo looked like this:

• Day 1: HIIT, 20 minutes on trainer
• Day 2: 1 hour 30 minutes low intensity (Zone 1-2) on trainer
• Day 3: Rest day
• Day 4: 1 hour 40 minutes low intensity (Zone 2) on trainer
• Day 5: HIIT, 20 minutes on trainer
• Day 6: Rest day
• Day 7: 60 minute YouTube party mix intervals on trainer

Day 7 happens to be a Friday. And party mix intervals on YouTube is pretty much me watching music videos and just going for it. This is the fun day before the next cycle starts and Saturdays are rest days.. At least some days.

After Chemo

So the plan is that the Chemo treatment should be done sometime in January 2019, just in time when my Kona Sutra will arrive. That will give me 4 months to train in other ways, but that is probably another post.

Continued in Training cycle climbing when all you have is flat roads

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Adventure Inspiration 2018 October

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Some stuff that I've been reading lately. Not that much this time, but well worth the time all three of them!

blameitonthebike Cykla till Italien
Two Swedish girls take their bikes to Italy. In Swedish, but your browser can probably translate it for you. Well worth the read! At least for me, as this is pretty much the trip that I'm planning for next summer with Stelvio 2019

Six tips on long-distance cycling in Japan, learned the hard way: 1,200km from Tokyo to Sapporo
I think that the title says it all!


Across Australia from Sydney to Perth, including Tasmania
By that crazy guy on a bike, Art Brown