It’s Time to Start Gaining Weight

I know that, after reading that headline, you are thinking,  “What!!?  I’m trying to lose weight!  Is he crazy!?”  Well, in the words of the bard,  “I may be crazy, but it just may be a lunatic you’re looking for.”  The subject at had will actually have the effect of helping you to lose some weight.  Confused?  Good!  Please read on.

The weight gain I’m proposing is good for just about anyone, but especially for tourists and long endurance cyclists.  There is an old adage for racers that goes,  “Train heavy and race light.”  It’s not bad advice either.

The idea is to train on a heavy bike, with a lot of equipment.  Then ride a lighter bike at your events.  This makes you stronger and faster.  For racers this is a fairly sound training technique.  For endurance cyclists and tourists, it’s almost essential.

The tourist application:  You plan to do some touring this year.  You expect to either go “full loaded,” or at least “self-supported.”  Either way you go, you are going to be riding a bike that is a lot heavier.  No matter how efficient you are at packing and planning, you will be carrying a lot of stuff.  If you do all of your training and riding on a light bike, the day that you load up and go will not be a pleasant one.

So the idea is to gradually become accustomed to riding with a load.  Essentially, we want to become accustomed to riding with about %20 to %25 more mass than our actual event load.  This takes a bit of planning, but you can start it now.  Here’s how.

• Begin to plan your actual load.
• Collect all the tools, clothing, spares, etc and weigh them.
• Weigh your event bike.
• If you will be training on a bike other than your event bike, weigh it.
• The weight of your event bike, and your load is your target.
• You might have to carry a bit more on your training bike, if it is lighter than the event ride.
• Now start refining your gear choices.

While you working out what you will actually carry, you can start working the PLAN.  Here’s how.

Use your rough estimate of your target load.

Look at the calendar.  How many weeks until your event?

Subtract three weeks from that number.

Divide the “Training Load” (about %25 more than you actually plan to carry) by the number of weeks you have left.  That’s your “Weekly Increment.”

Now go ride.

Example:

Event bike = 28 pounds

Training Bike = 19 pounds

Event load = 25 pounds

Event bike and load = 53 pounds

Training Target is 66.25 pounds

Let’s say your event is in 24 weeks.  That means you want to hit Training Target in 21 weeks.  Your training bike weighs 47.25 pounds less than Training Target

So you add 2.25 pounds each week, from now until the beginning of that third week before the event.  You ride for two weeks at that Training Target weight.  The last week before the event, you are tapering and riding a light bike.  And you are event ready, because you will be riding a lighter bike for the actual tour.

Incidentally, we aren’t committing to 24 weeks of unremitting drudgery here.  You will be able to enjoy getting on the nice light bike from time to time.  (And believe me, you will enjoy it!)  More on that soon.

Wednesday:  How to ride that heavy bike!