Calories per Mile

This is a SWAG for calories burned cycling 12-15mph:

* Divide your feet climbed by 10.
* Divide again by your average MPH.
* Add that to your total miles.
* Multiply the new number by the weight in pounds of you, your bike, and everything you’re carrying.
* Multiply the new number by 0.105 (or divide by 9.5).
* (Use 0.115 or 8.7 if you only know your own naked wake-up weight.)
* That is pretty close to your calories burned for the ride.
* Baseline here is me, 6’5″, anywhere between 250 and 290 pounds plus bike weight (any bike).

BMR is not a part of this SWAG:

* BMR is how much you burn in 24 hours of sleeping.
* Most people are around 9kcal per pound per day.
* BMR and is not based on your activity level (see TDEE).
* BMR is based in your microcellular efficiency, and is influenced by hormones.
* If you are on severe caloric restriction, it goes down.
* Thyroid issues can affect this either way.
* Baseline here is me, at 285 pounds, and averaging 2550 kcal per day.

Faster speeds pick up exponentially more wind resistance.

* Twice the airspeed has four times the wind drag.
* Higher density altitude has proportionally less drag.
* Shorter and narrower shouldered people people have less wind drag.
* Fatter people are slightly more aerodynamic, so the increased wind profile is not THAT much of an issue.
* Cycling 10mph into a 5mph headwind has as much wind drag as cycling 20mph with a 5mph tailwind.
* 12-16mph is the 50% transition for wind vs other factors on flat ground. (13mph for me at 6 sqft)
* Baseline here is me, with about 6 square feet of frontal area, about 22 Watts at 10mph, and about 150 Watts at 20mph, just for wind.

Rolling resistance is a big part of drag.

* Increases linearly with speed (2x speed is 2x the rolling drag).
* Lower weight is better (because tiny bumps have to push you UP over them).
* Race tires can be half the CRR of average tires.
* Wider tires are better by around 1% per mm with 23mm as baseline.
* Baseline is me, at 310 total, 31W at 10mph, or 61W at 20mph on 1% grade.

Routes with less uphill than downhill will cost fewer calories.

* Increases linearly with speed (2x speed is 2x the gravity drag).
* 1% uphill is 2x the drag of rolling resistance. 2% is 4x.
* Lower weight people do way better on both gravity and CRR.
* Baseline is me, at 310 total, 62W at 10mph vs 124W at 20mph on 1% grade.

Good links:

* https://www.gribble.org/cycling/power_v_speed.html
* http://mccraw.co.uk/wind-resistance-cycling-speed/
* http://mccraw.co.uk/optimising-for-long-distance-speed/


Cycling Fuel

Max bodyfat you can burn in an hour is roughly 1 gram per 10 pounds, or in calories, 9 times your weight in pounds.

Anything else is food, muscle glycogen, or actual muscle tissue. Glycogen max is about 4% lean muscle mass, which usually is enough for 90 mins, plus or minus. Food is whatever is in your gut, though exercise slows digestion.

Bonk is when you have used up all food, and your glycogen stores, effectively exercising while fasted.

Bonk power is the max sustained energy ouput when you are fasted/bonked. This is fat burn, and muscle breakdown, combines.

Average watts is roughly 1/4 your calories per hour.

Me as an example
I’m 280 pounds, and bonk power for me is 133 watts, which is about 520 calories per hour. Doing that pretty much guarantees cramps from muscle breakdown.

Biking, I tend to burn 750-850 calories per hour, but I can peak at over 1000 in some instances (beginning, well fed, well rested, very driven).

That’s a big gap, because being big, I get more wind drag, which is 50% of your energy above 15mph. I also take more energy to climb a hill.

Downhill is faster, so less benefit (less time spent going downhill), and often waste the energy by riding brakes so as to not plow through others.

I do best consuming 600 calories per hour while riding more than 90 mins.

So, I have to eat the equivalent of a meal every hour to keep up, and reduce cramp risks. Most of that needs to be carbs that break down in less than an hour. Also, I don’t want to have a bathroom break every hour.

Ride Fuel
Sugary colas have phosphate, glucose, and fructose – all good for refueling. Cookies, sandwiches, etc usually are low roughage, good energy density, and include salt. M&Ms were actually designed to be endurance fuel for the army, and they hold up pretty well in a plastic bag.

Basically, all the things that are bad for you normally make great endurance fuel.

As to proper “race fuel”, honestly, it’s too low calorie for someone my size. Some people only need 200 calories an hour to stay fueled, so half banana, a 2″ square of granola, and a swig of gatorade is fine. For me, that would be a whole bunch bananas, and two quarts of gatorade. Just too much bulk.

Impediments
Add to all that the need for oxygen to build ATP (actual muscle energy chemical). It takes 35% more oxygen to burn blood glucose than intra-muscular glycogen. Fat takes twice as much oxygen as glucose. High heat, humidity, low pressure, altitude, carbonation, and alcohol all reduce oxygen availability. Transport of glucose into the cell takes ATP. Digestion of food takes ATP.

Diabetes, Insulin Resistance, and Metabolic Syndrome
The key there is to not eat much carbohydrate outside of the exercise times. When glycogen reserves are full (muscles recovered), and adipose cells are replete, then why would you need more fuel? That’s the practical wording of the physiology here, despite the perception of a faulty hunger mechanism for the obese, or lack of islets for type I, or the defective signalling in Type II without obesity triggers.

Exercise induced glucose uptake is normal in diabetic muscle cells:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4315445/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/3899806
http://www.medscape.org/viewarticle/438374

Exercise may increase glucose sensitivity:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/3899806

While glycogen is being replenished, glucose uptake by muscles in normal. GLUT4 is transported to the membrane during exercise, even in absence of insulin.
http://diabetes.diabetesjournals.org/content/62/2/572
http://physiologyonline.physiology.org/content/20/4/260.full
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1550413107000678


Bicycle cross-chaining

Mark loves to prod me about cross-chaining, because it’s formally a naughty-no-no. I thought I’d give some observations, since I am a chronic cross-chainer.

Cross chaining wears the sides of the sprockets, which is never what wears out. I ride like I am a 1×9 unless I’m on hills. No problems. All major makers support 1×11 (single gear in front, all the way back and forth in the rear).

Cross chaining puts a side load on chain pins, so use a chain whose plates don’t pop off. Most are made by KMC, with a brand label on them. I found SRAM branded chains hold up better. SRAM was the first to offer 1×11 drivetrains. KMC branded, Shimano branded, etc would pop a link by 600 miles. Maybe better now, but I have no reason to change brands. Bell chains are just too heavy/slow/frictiony, but work fine. Whippermsn chains are super durable, but expensive. Chains with a dimple or flat pin edge are better than the ones that look like a wite cutter went after them.

Wear on the teeth, ramps, and pins of the cassette/chainrings is due to shifting. Side loads don’t matter much, but heavy loads do. Don’t shift under high load, and they will last longer. If you hear a crunch when shifting because you waited to downshift, that’s more damaging.

Wear on chains is mostly from higher wattage, incorrect lubrication, and grit abrasion. Clean and lube your chain any time you can hear it at all. Try different lubes and see what you like. You can even throw it in a jug of 50wt motor oil, or molten candle wax if you like, but make sure to wipe it off well. Oil only needs to be inside the rollers. Anywhere else attracts grit.

Wattage, well, whatever power you can put into a chain is part of the fun, but if you are 285 pounds like me, and stand to power up a hill, expect more wear.

Lastly, when your chain gets to 0.5% stretched, replace it. Letting it go longer causes additional wear on the sprockets.

The only other issue to bring up is practical, not wear related, and that’s dropped chains.

If you are all the way tiny in the back, and shift up to the big ring in the front, expect to drop the chain off the outside, onto the crank arm.

If you are all the way small in the back, and try to shift to the small ring up front, expect to drop your chain between the cranks and the frame.

If you are fast, you can soft pedal, shift 2-3x in the rear, then shift up front, before losing much momentum. Chain guards and idler arms are not super effective at preventing drops caused by cross chaining.


HEATMAPS!

I updated my GPS heatmap on Strava. They only do for Cycling OR Running, but nothing else, nor a combined map. *sigh*

So, my walks that had GPS were converted to runs. Some had a little running. It zooms way out, because most of it was in the Bahamas, but there’s a little blob on the trail behind my house. I also have non-GPS chunks at a couple campsites, and in Argyle, but they’re not on any maps.

Anyway, here they are:
Cycling: http://www.strava.com/athletes/2411233/heatmaps/755521fe

Running: http://www.strava.com/athletes/2411233/heatmaps/58a361f3


Sanger Chase Ride

Ride to Sanger with the Sharon group. I was 22 mins late leaving the house, so I told them not to delay the start time. They waited 5-6 mins for me at Hwy 377 and Bonnie Brae. It was a hard push to catch up, and Sharon pushed hard once I got in sight.

Unfortunately, this sort of punished/burned out some of the others as well, especially Jim F. Jim tried to hang on, but at the end he finally admitted he needed to work his way up to this length of ride. He completed it, but with our waiting, it was 2-3 hours extra. That being said, for being about 3 months post-op for hip replacement, he’s doing awesome.

Becky took the SAG wagon back from lunch because of other committments.  Karl took it because he broke a drive-side spoke in the middle where it’d been notched by the chain about 2000 miles ago.

http://www.strava.com/activities/190791492
http://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/584287752

Continue reading


Lunch Ride

Lunch at Modmarket, a new restaurant. Apple maps had a massively wrong location for 3651 Justin Road. Also, notice the teleport from Wal-Mart to Silverthorn. I forgot to turn on my GPS.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/582161533
http://www.strava.com/activities/189474779


Men’s Ride

Karl, Jim and I went for a quick spin. Pretty muggy out there, but the temps were nice. We started early, and rolled about 7:05am from the AMC pond, and about 6:50 from my back gate. Ended up a little further than we planned, but was good. Wind was brutal. This was a pretty hard push to only get 16.2mph. Average watts shows the truth.

I stayed near the front for much of the second half of the ride, but I was never far ahead. It’s more of the initial power-up rather than a massive difference in power. Looking over the last few months of Garmin history for rides over 20 mins and 5 miles, this is my highest average wattage (214 vs 207) by 7 watts, but only my second highest max-average-watts (244 vs 258 highest 20-min average during the ride).

I also had actual breakfast – 2 mini sausage-biscuits (300kcal) and 3 six-inch pancakes (about the same). No syrup or butter. Powerade full-strength in one bottle, and half plus sugar-free green tea in the other… plus 20oz of gatorade mid-ride, plus a fried pie mid ride. It was 20 miles in before I opened the first bottle, but I’ve been pretty well hydrated lately. I definitely felt the slowdown before beginning the rehydration.

I was short on sleep, and had Advocare MNS Max E (though I didn’t have the CorePlex, the probiotic, nor the Omega. I added a single OptiMen multi tablet, and one TwinLab TriBoron Plus calcium). The MNS E is caffeine laiden, and I felt very alert. Perceived exertion seemed lower than expected, but it was still very obviously a hard push. The ingredients all look to be okay were I in a UCI race, but I can’t help but wonder about metabolites, etc. I couldn’t find anything on the USADA or WADA websites on labs for testing. They specifically don’t test supplements. More research is warranted.
Continue reading


Leaderless Ride

Sharon was ill, so a few of us rode from the duck pond.
Karl, Kathy, Jim, Becky, Darrell and I.
Was a pretty easy pace other than a couple hill sprints for fun.
We stopped at the Wal-Mart grocery-only at 2499 and 3040,
and stopped at the Farmer’s Market at I35 and Garden Ridge.
I’m missing a chunk from Wal-Mart until almost to LakeSide.
We were going to check out the Loozvil parade, but we were early.
Overcast for much of the ride was welcome.
Continue reading


North DFW Group Saturday Rides

These are the summer times.
These usually move an hour later with the time change.
Join the clubs’ online forums (or facebooks where availble),
since sometimes ride leaders are ill, have other plans, etc.

Carrollton Cycling Club has two standing Saturday rides:
* Al has a 7:00am, 45-60 mile ride, at a challenging pace, starting from Coppell’s Andrew Brown Park – East.
* Valerie has an 8:00am, 38 mile ride at a moderate pace from the Carrollton Gazebo on Broadway, south of Belt Line, close to I-35E.
* http://www.carrolltoncycling.com/ccc_rides.html

* Sharon has a pseudo-official group ride at 8:30am from Cadence Cyclery at a C-group pace. If newbies show up, it’s a 10-mile loop. Otherwise, the regulars tend to ride 30-70 miles around 15mph average, with a food stop on the way back in.

Texas Flyers (Flower Mound) also has two Saturday rides:
* TX Flyers has a 7:30am, intermediate ride at 16-18mph from from Downing Middle School on Waketon and Bridlewood.
* TX Flyers has a 9:00am social ride at 15-17mph from Downing. Usually meets the first ride at Cachette.
https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/TXFlyersSocialGroup/info

Corinth Cycling has three Saturday rides:
* 7:00am ride which includes a C/B ride, an A ride, and a race team, departing Crownover Middle School.
* https://www.google.com/calendar/embed?src=scottfranklin%40gmail.com&ctz=America/Chicago

Shawnee Trail Cycling Club (Frisco) has several rides:
* STCC has Novice, D, C, B and A, plus RBM’s rides in different places in Frisco starting at 7:30, 8:00 and 9:00.
* http://shawneetrailcyclingclub.com/our-rides/our-rides/
* http://shawneetrailcyclingclub.com/calendar/


Solo(w) Lunch Ride

Just a jaunt over to lunch with Mark, Rob and Scott.
Lots of discussions about rights, racketeering, police brutality, religion, etc.

Lunch ride:
http://www.strava.com/activities/186349398/
4.6mi Distance
20:21 Moving Time
246ft Elevation (?)
9 Suffer Score
1 Points in the Red

240W Weighted Avg Power
238kJ Total Work
37 Training Load
98% Intensity

Stat Avg Max
Speed 13.7mi/h 34.0mi/h
Heart Rate 124bpm 168bpm
Cadence 73 102
Power 195W 831W
Calories 265
Temperature 99℉
Elapsed Time 2:28:17

Heart Rate Analysis
Z1 Endurance < 106 4:11 21% Z2 Moderate 106 - 141 12:45 63% Z3 Tempo 141 - 158 2:33 13% Z4 Threshold 158 - 175 52s 4% Z5 Anaerobic > 175 0s 0%

Zone Distribution
Z1 Active Recovery 1 – 134 W 8:15 41%
Z2 Endurance 135 – 183 W 2:15 11%
Z3 Tempo 184 – 220 W 1:58 10%
Z4 Threshold 221 – 257 W 1:20 7%
Z5 VO2Max 258 – 294 W 1:17 6%
Z6 Anaerobic 295 – 367 W 1:44 9%
Z7 Neuromuscular 368+ W 3:25 17%

http://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/576750321
Summary
Distance: 4.64 mi
Time: 20:08
Avg Speed: 13.8 mph
Elevation Gain: 246 ft
Calories: 239 C
Avg Temperature: 99.0 °F

Timing
Time: 20:08
Moving Time: 19:59
Elapsed Time: 2:28:28

SpeedPace
Avg Speed: 13.8 mph
Avg Moving Speed: 13.9 mph
Max Speed: 34.7 mph

Elevation
Elevation Gain: 246 ft
Elevation Loss: 217 ft
Min Elevation: 558 ft
Max Elevation: 627 ft

Heart Rate
Avg HR: 124 bpm
Max HR: 168 bpm
Zones% of Maxbpm

Power
Avg Power: 202 W
Max Power: 831 W
Max Avg Power (20 min): 84 W
Normalized Power (NP): 283 W
Intensity Factor (IF): 1.155
Training Stress Score (TSS): 43.7
FTP Setting: 245 W
Work: 245 kJ

Cadence
Avg Bike Cadence: 72 rpm
Max Bike Cadence: 102 rpm

Temperature
Avg Temperature: 99.0 °F
Min Temperature: 86.0 °F
Max Temperature: 105.8 °F

Laps
Split Time Distance Avg Speed
Summary 20:08.3 4.64 13.8
1 9:03.5 1.92 12.7
2 11:04.9 2.72 14.7

Weather
90° Feels like 95°
9 mph ENE wind
Humidity 52%
Source: KDFW

Additional Information
Device: Garmin Edge 500, 3.30.0.0
Elevation Corrections: Disabled
Power Average Calculations: Use Zeros
Summary Data: Original