Weird and not-so-weird cycling questions

[Seitanist]

My apologies if these have been answered. If people feel like responding though, that would be awesome!

1) Mucus: Maybe I'm stuffed up or something, but I cannot go for a long ride without having to spit and/or get mucus out of my nose constantly, like every 10-15 minutes. It's not that annoying, but turns my jersey/shorts into a mess (though I rinse them after every ride due to the sweat) and is a small bother. It's even worse in cold weather, but I noticed myself doing it a month or two ago when it was still summer here in the Midwest US.

2) Lower back pain: I am guessing this is some combination of seat/bar placement? I get it after about an hour of intense riding. It's not bad, but annoying, and worries me that it will fuck something up later. It stops as soon as I stop riding, or if I sit up on the bike for 20-30 seconds (pedaling without hands).

3) Hill speed decrease: Fairly obvious that you go slower up hills unless you pedal harder, but I have a really tough time with this. I can fly on flat ground, but on the really steep hills my thighs start to burn like crazy and it becomes difficult to keep up a decent speed, even with significant down-shifting. Is this something I need to work on with drills? Do leg presses at the gym? Or just keep riding hard all the time until I build up the stamina? Is there something I can do for that burn? I believe it's lactic acid - any way to suppress that? I drink water while riding, though not a ton.

4) Food intake while riding: For rides that are going to last more than two hours I usually bring some source food; a PureFit bar or something similar. Am I underestimating this need, or do I even need sustenance for a ride that "short?" I honestly don't notice a "difference" after I consume the food, but figure that after burning 1000 calories or so, my body might need some extra energy. Make sense or totally bunk?

For reference info these rides are 30-50 miles (varies), mostly flat, a couple decent hills, I'm 6' and 170 lbs. I believe I stay between 17 and 20 mph from reading on my old cyclocomputer (with the hills being an exception).

[JohnBarleycorn]

1. I produce plenty of mucus when training hard, especially in winter ! Cycling is all about sweat, pain, mucus and blood. Hopefully in that order. I haven't had a cold for four years, but I still get rid of plenty of mucus on a ride. Its normal.

2. Yup, sounds like your position. Hard to say what the problem is without seeing how you sit on the bike. Could also be pushing bigger gears than you can handle, or having tight hamstrings. Stretching usually helps.

3. The lactic acid burn is one of the pleasures of cycling ! Its all about pain. Even Tour winners have to cope with that pain. It never goes away. Drinking water won't help. Just get fitter....it will still hurt, but you will be going faster. Don't bother with leg presses....that won't help. I have been able to leg press massive weights, but it never helped my climbing. You need to get fitter, learn to spin on climbs, maybe at 90rpm or faster. It takes a while to learn how to climb.....two or three years, I would think.

Climbing is about CV fitness. Power to weight helps. The great climbers are light. Pantani was well under 125lbs. I was 135lbs when I was a hillclimb champion, many years ago. Now I am 165lbs, and I am not so explosive on the climbs. If you are heavy, climbing will never be a way to winning races. At 170lbs, you are on the heavier side....your strengths will lie towards being a strong man on the flat, and into the wind.

4. You need to take in fuel for any ride over one hour, in general. You are not necessarily eating for the current ride, but for tomorrows ride. Thats an important thing to remember, that I learnt from pro riders when I was in France. You usually have enough fuel for two hours of riding, but it would be unwise to ride for two hours without eating. It will compromise many systems in your body, including your immune system, which is suppressed when carb reserves get low.

I did a hard two hour ride today. Hard roads, windy weather, lots of hill. Spinning at 100rpm. Average HR 144bpm. I took a liquid feed. Drank every 15 minutes, after the first 20 minutes. So I never really lowered my reserves. So my recovery will be quicker, and I will be able to train hard again tomorrow.

Hope that all helps ?

[the crazyest vegan]

what he said.....

lol i know what you mean about the hills, i know two guy's who leave everyone standing on the flat, but they drop back on the hills, it's just about practicing them! find a hill you like and practice on it with different rpm's etc. i produce a lot of mucus as well so dont worry about that unless it's really excessive.
i get a bit of lower back pain if i'm riding hard in the drop's but i think my stem is a bit to long and it's nothing to worry about in my case but differnt people different rules.and as JBC said, that burn is part of it, the stronger and fitter you get the more you get used to it untill you forget all about it.
hope this helps!

[Mr. Cleetus]

3. The lactic acid burn is one of the pleasures of cycling ! Its all about pain. Even Tour winners have to cope with that pain. It never goes away. Drinking water won't help. Just get fitter....it will still hurt, but you will be going faster.

but on the optimistic side there is more than one kind of pain: there is the, "OMG I am unfit and never gonna be able do this" kind of pain which is pretty untolerable, and then there is the, "this really hurts, but I can keep this up and I feel really strong" kind of pain which is somehow less horrible which one gets closer to as one gets more fit!

but then, maybe thats just me...

[JohnBarleycorn]

Agreed !

Pain when you are winning, and dropping people, is far better than pain when you are hanging on, and getting your legs ripped off by stronger riders !

Pain is very subjective. When you are very motivated, pain isn't a problem. When you aren't so interested, pain tends to be overwhelming.

When you see people falling apart around you, and you feel ok, somehow the pain fades into the background.

[raven]

just wanted to chime in on # 1- i get some mucous (not that bad, but a little annoying). i like to think of cycling as a way to get rid of it i've managed to "clean" myself out by riding after some nasty colds.

[Seitanist]

1. I produce plenty of mucus when training hard, especially in winter ! Cycling is all about sweat, pain, mucus and blood. Hopefully in that order. I haven't had a cold for four years, but I still get rid of plenty of mucus on a ride. Its normal.

2. Yup, sounds like your position. Hard to say what the problem is without seeing how you sit on the bike. Could also be pushing bigger gears than you can handle, or having tight hamstrings. Stretching usually helps.

3. The lactic acid burn is one of the pleasures of cycling ! Its all about pain. Even Tour winners have to cope with that pain. It never goes away. Drinking water won't help. Just get fitter....it will still hurt, but you will be going faster. Don't bother with leg presses....that won't help. I have been able to leg press massive weights, but it never helped my climbing. You need to get fitter, learn to spin on climbs, maybe at 90rpm or faster. It takes a while to learn how to climb.....two or three years, I would think.

Climbing is about CV fitness. Power to weight helps. The great climbers are light. Pantani was well under 125lbs. I was 135lbs when I was a hillclimb champion, many years ago. Now I am 165lbs, and I am not so explosive on the climbs. If you are heavy, climbing will never be a way to winning races. At 170lbs, you are on the heavier side....your strengths will lie towards being a strong man on the flat, and into the wind.

4. You need to take in fuel for any ride over one hour, in general. You are not necessarily eating for the current ride, but for tomorrows ride. Thats an important thing to remember, that I learnt from pro riders when I was in France. You usually have enough fuel for two hours of riding, but it would be unwise to ride for two hours without eating. It will compromise many systems in your body, including your immune system, which is suppressed when carb reserves get low.

I did a hard two hour ride today. Hard roads, windy weather, lots of hill. Spinning at 100rpm. Average HR 144bpm. I took a liquid feed. Drank every 15 minutes, after the first 20 minutes. So I never really lowered my reserves. So my recovery will be quicker, and I will be able to train hard again tomorrow.

Hope that all helps ?

Thank you so much!

I know the weight thing is an issue, but I didn't want to get into weight loss right now - that's another subject matter with various facets and issues that could be more about me as a person than my training.

Anyway, I never thought about the "eating for tomorrow" thing. Good call.

I just need to keep riding, and hard. I honestly think a lot of the cycling "pain" is mental, and I have to focus to fight through it, which is what you seem to be alluding to.

[helmut]

i produce a lot of mucous too!! glad im not the only one

i sometimes get back pain/arm pain but this is because i grip the handlebars too hard and dont change my hand position frequently enough. im getting better though! i used to get sore fingers from gripping the brakes too hard, haha!! i think its important to remember to keep your back straight while riding (when possible!).

wow i didnt know that about fuelling, i will keep that in mind. just out of interest, what does everyone use to 'refuel'? would something like fruitjuice be appropriate? to be honest i really dont like sports drinks or anything too artificial and sugary (i dont react well to processed sugar).....

hills are always going to be hard, but dontcha just love them (in a retrospective kind of way!!)

[Dave Noisy]

To add:

1 - sometimes excess mucous is a bad thing...check that you don't have a food allergy that might be aggravating this. In the cool, it's much more common, but on warm days, you shouldn't be oozing much...

2 - back pain might be temporary, as you're adjusting to riding.. I don't get it on the track (very low position) or road, but i get it from cyclocross -- my position is much the same (actually a bit higher!) but it's the low cadence that kills me. (Obviously not a problem on the track.)

My 'cross back pain decreases as the season goes by, where it's just a wee bit at the end of the race (rather than onset 1/2 way through, and fairly severe.)

3 - no no no! Lactic acid is actually GOOD for us! It's the hydrogen that's being release due to the utilization of anaerobic energy systems, i wrote about it here:

http://cycling.thenoisies.com/2005/02/l ... friend.asp

You may need to back off a bit and learn what your threshold is...

For the hills, as JBC said, it takes years -- years to learn how to pace yourself properly! =)

You gotta figure out exactly how hard you can go, and where you blow up...and then pay attention to that... A good anecdotal story for this is a guy who'd come out on a 'fast' group ride, who had a LOT of experience, but hadn't been riding, and so wasn't particularly fit... On the hills, the pack would surge up the hill, many of us close to blowing, and this guy would just fade back....we'd crest the hill and then try to maintain some effort down the hill, but this guy would catch us and then zoom by..

Why? Because he rode up the hill at a pace he could maintain, and took into consideration getting over and down the hill, and so while we all blew our wads getting up the hill as quickly as we could, he still had gas in the tank for after the hill....

Up to 2hrs, you might be fine without food, but i'd say eat at 1hr anyway. Make sure the bars you're eating are mostly carbs, and very little fat or protein, as these aren't helpful (and tough to digest.)

Hope this helps!