A Weight Problem......?
do tri
Posts: 12
in General Chat
Here is a puzzle if you could take a stone off your weight today what effect would this have on your cycle pace over say an Ironman distance?
Say you average 16mph for the distance would the reduction in weight take you up to 17-18mph average?
Any one any thoughts on it
Cheers
do tri[8D]
Say you average 16mph for the distance would the reduction in weight take you up to 17-18mph average?
Any one any thoughts on it
Cheers
do tri[8D]
0
Comments
My experience is that I have got faster on the bike because I rode more (around 200km a week building to 350km for IM) and because I rode more I lost weight around 20kg in 2 years, the first 10 or so came off quickly the last 10 more slowly. I mix up my bike training with group rides, solo hill repeats recovery rides and spinerval sessions on my indoor trainer (which is outdoors as I am not allowed to use it inside - it is a sweat machine!). I am still not fast enough though, and my downhill with the wind behind speed has slowed as the weight has come off!
Hope this is of some use.
FW
what I was getting at was , is there a rule of thumb of how much your avg mph improves on the same routes, for a corresponding weight loss, if me and my bike weigh 13st for example if the combined weight dropped to 12st how much quicker would that make me?
cheers
do tri[8D]
For starters weight is hugely ambiguous, i.e. that stone your on about might be mostly composed of muscle! this could happen if you crash dieted and didnt take in the correct nutrition to replace the muscle breakdown as a result of intense exercise. This could cause a decrease in power so you would get slower!
Another side of it is the route you are doing, as a drop in weight will help you loads going up hills, but not as much on the flats/ down hills.
So any opinion anyone could have on this topic would be a pure (possibly educated!) guess. But i would say that on a hilly course, yes i think you could expect at least a mph increase with a stone of FAT lost, as you will fly up the hills in comparison!
sorry i cant provide anymore answers!
Avoid losing good weight ie muscle mass but this is difficult to lose anyway - you need to STARVE yourself or contract a wasting condition. Lose fat as fat does not move bikes or you - it is dead weight. yes yes yes it is an energy store but how much of it can be mobilised and used during exercise, training or even an ironman? I think the body will use carbohydrates and as long as you eat during an event you will use very little or no fat.
In other words lose fat go faster and avoid the excuses of "I need it as an energy store"
Yes a fair amount of weight, I am an ex rugby player (gave up because of bad knees), the weight was probably not all fat but it certainly was in the wrong places for triathlon. When I started riding I could not ride up hills at all, now I still do not like them but I do get up them (just!) so it is certainly a benefit. I also discovered that I had some food allergies so I had to modify my diet as well and I found that changing my pre-ride brekky also made a big differrence as often an hour into a ride I would feel uncomfortable in the guts, but now I have a combination of Oatbrits, spoonful of unprocessed honey and soymilk before each ride and have no more problems, obviously I have gels/bananas/electrolyte drinks during a long ride as well (2-5 hours etc).
I also use any excuse to ride, when meeting up with a training partner to run etc I ride to his place, run and ride back, it may only be 20 minutes each way (with a couple of hills) but it all helps. So just ride everywhere you can.
Cheers
FW
Strap 5kg to the panniers and it will have more of an effect than 1.25kg strapped to each of your limbs.Kinectic/potential energy and all that.0% fat or a very low bodyfat content increases your reliance on nutrition to make it to the finish line as your body has no reserves.