Help Centre

Once you have a clear idea of the intensity you expect to ride at during the Gran Fondo (or Sportive) (see the article Managing your Effort Level During a Gran Fondo) you can then start to plan your required fuelling for the event. As a general rule of thumb when you are riding longer than 2 hours, your body requires 90g of carbohydrate every hour of riding. You can get these through gels or energy bars (bananas are also very good for this). However, for a lot of riders 90g per hour is hard for the gut to manage. As a result, once a week you should practice consuming this amount of fuel (consider doing this during one of your weekend ride) so your body is conditioned for these demands.Keep in mind carbohydrate intake of 90 grams per hours of riding is the upper limit of what we can consume. Any more than this and your body may not probably digest the fuel. But, should the time of when you intake fuel during the gran fondo change depending on the profile? Let's say your gran fondo is 100km with 3 big climbs around 15km each, this means almost 50% of your route will be up hill. Further, each climb will likely take between 60-90 minutes. Considering this, you will want to plan your carbohydrate intake around these times as this is when you will be putting the most effort in. Consider the below graph as an example fuelling strategy. Take note of when the suggested fuelling is relative to the course profile. The below course is due to take you roughly 5 hours. Meaning you will need 450g of carbohydrates. Lets say you have a gel consisting of 45g of carbohydrates, you will need around 10 gels to get you though the course. The crosses offer a guide to when you should be taking these gels of 45g of carbohydrates. Note how the gels are constantly taken throughout the race. This is of course just an example and it may vary for you depending on what you find best. If you have further questions or want to go through your fuelling strategy for your event drop BCA an email. Email: info@breakawaycoachingandanalytics.com

This is the BCA Gran Fondo guide with a collection of all the help centre articles in one place to help you find the information you need. Follow the articles from top to bottom to gain a complete understanding of how you need to prepare for the Gran Fondo. Managing your Effort Level During a Gran Fondo How do you know what intensity you should be riding at or how to pace an effort that's a long distance or on a mountains terrain. Found out in the link below. https://www.breakawaycoachingandanalytics.com/post/managing-your-effort-level-during-a-gran-fondo Marathon During-Fuelling Fuelling to ensure you can sustain the intensity you set out and meet the demands of the course profile can be hard. Found out how to manage these things in the link below. https://www.breakawaycoachingandanalytics.com/post/planning-your-fuelling-for-a-gran-fondo Best of luck at your Gran Fondo if you do have any questions, please email BCA. Or you can add us to your TrainingPeaks account so we can see your progress. Email: info@breakawaycoachingandanalytics.com Add to TrainingPeaks acount link: https://home.trainingpeaks.com/attachtocoach?sharedKey=QTNQSOVO6T5GK

Given a Gran Fondo (or Sportive) and vary in distance or terrain it can be hard to know how to pace and manage your effort level for these types of events. Ensuring you don’t push too hard and burn out before the finish line can be harder to manage compared to a flat shorter race. So, this post goes through what is roughly the most appropriate effort level for you to consider. Let’s consider the Gran Fondo distance. Naturally the longer the distance the lower the effort level. You can see in the below table an intensity range (represented as a percent of your FTP) for the powers you should be sustaining. A lot of these efforts from the table in high zone 2/zone 3. You should find a lot of your intervals are sub-threshold style to teach the muscles how to cope with these intensities. Let’s say your FTP is 300w and you have been training for a 100 mile Gran Fondo. Your target intensity is roughly 75% of your FTP, which in this case is 225w at most. However, you want to make sure you are paying attention to your normalised power over your average power given the course is likely to have a lot of elevation. We can specify the effort level further by considering your strengths and weakness. Let’s say you have a 100km Gran Fondo (In theory you roughly want an effort level between 75-85% of your FTP) with 3000 meters of elevation gain (divided into 2 large climbs), but you know you are better along the flat sections compared to the climbing sections. You can distribute your effort accordingly, see the example in the below table. So pacing a Gran Fondo is about ensuring you find the right intensity for a given distance and match your effort level to the terrain and your strength and weakness. Some extra tips that may be helpful: Find out the elevation per km for your Gran Fondo course, then aim to replicate that elevation per km in your training rides. During your weekend long rides try riding at your planned pace/intensity you expect to hit for your event for 30-60 minutes. Now you should have a clearer idea of the intensity you plan to ride at, go find out how to fuel for a Gran Fondo in the next article. If you have any further questions please don't hesitate to drop BCA and email: Email: info@breakawaycoachingandanalytics.com

This is the BCA marathon guide with a collection of all the help centre articles in one place to help you find the information you need. Follow the articles from top to bottom to gain a complete understanding of how you need to prepare for the marathon and what you should do once you have finished the race Find out how to fuel for a marathon both before and during the race. Marathon Pre-Fuelling In the lead up to your marathon you should beginning think about how you are going fuel yourself for the race. Most of us will be burning in excess of 2000 Kcal during the race nearly all of which will come from carbohydrates. So how do we ensure you have enough carbohydrates to get us through the race. https://www.breakawaycoachingandanalytics.com/post/marathon-pre-fuelling Marathon During-Fuelling The body can only store around 1600Kcal of carbohydrates in the body and you re likely to burn over 2000Kcal during the marathon which means you will need to fuel during the race. But what are the best during race fuelling strategies. https://www.breakawaycoachingandanalytics.com/post/marathon-during-fuelling So now you understand how to fuel for your marathon, but what about the pacing, or finding the right pace. How to Pace a Marathon Marathon pacing can account for 14% of your perfomance (marathon time) on the day of theevent, so it imporant to get right. But, what is the optimal pacing method? https://www.breakawaycoachingandanalytics.com/post/how-to-pace-a-marathon Marathon Race Pace Your marathon race pace will vary depending on your ability. You will learn your marathon pace over time and get a better feel for what it is like to sustain the effort. During training you should have a marathon pace session once a week to help you with this. https://www.breakawaycoachingandanalytics.com/post/marathon-race-pace Now you have finished the marathon you are likey feeling fatgiue and wondering what is best (or safe) for you to do exercise/training wise. Post Marathon Recovery The marathon will induce a lot of fatigue that can take time to recover from. So once you have finished the marathon what should you be doing to back to normal again. https://www.breakawaycoachingandanalytics.com/post/post-marathon-recovery Best of luck at your marathon if you do have any questions, please email BCA. Or you can add us to your TrainingPeaks account so we can see your progress. Email: info@breakawaycoachingandanalytics.com Add to TrainingPeaks acount link: https://home.trainingpeaks.com/attachtocoach?sharedKey=QTNQSOVO6T5GK

The marathon will induce a lot of fatigue that can take time to recover from. So once you have finished the marathon what should you be doing to back to normal again. The fatigue you will experience after a marathon is mainly central fatigue. Central fatigue refers to the brain and nervous system so you may feel changes in mood, brain fog or sleep disruption for example. Further, when looking at biomarkers such as creatine kinase (which is released into the muscle when damage occurs during exercise) or blood lactate levels the rate of recovery can vary amongst individuals. Typically you can expect your biomarkers to return to baseline (before the marathon) after 6-8 days. During this period should you do any exercise? Using exercise as a recovery methods is referred to as active recovery and is frequently used. However, after an event such as the marathon it may have the opposite effect and worsen your recovery. Methods such as cold water immersion, massage or passive recovery will help you recovery faster. So put your feet up and rest. However, the recovery time may vary depending on your marathon time. Faster runners should avoid proper training for longer. Whereas slower runners may be able to start running sooner. Once you have recovered you may start thinking about your next goal or next season. Check out the article below to start planning. https://www.breakawaycoachingandanalytics.com/post/planning-for-next-season If you have any questions or need further guidance drop BCA an email. BCA email: info@breakawaycoachingandanalytics.com WANT A PERSONALISED TRAINING PLAN? Click the link below. https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdmNOtHARJJnUDAasr8o6w-EzRmjc6G1J6tMTiCsAZ8jicKgQ/viewform

The body can only store around 1600Kcal of carbohydrates in the body and you re likely to burn over 2000Kcal during the marathon which means you will need to fuel during the race. But what are the best during race fuelling strategies. Your primary fuel source during the marathon will be carbohydrates. However, we only store a limited amount of carbohydrates even with a good carb-loading strategy. Therefore, you will need to fuel during the race. The current recommendation is any exercise longer than 90 minutes requires 90g of carbohydrates per hour of exercise. To give you perspective that’s roughly a bowl of pasta per hour of running. Which means the average marathon runner (assuming a time of 4.5 hours) would require around 400g of carbohydrates (the equivalent to about 1600Kcal). Consuming 1600Kcal during marathon would be a very difficult task and may not benefit you. So you need to make sure your body can get the most from each gram of carbohydrates you give it, so how do you do this? Training itself at both a low an high intensity overtime will improve your bodies glycogen sensitivity which means you will become better can absorbing and utilising carbohydrates. Which means keep consistent with training and your body will get better a using less carbohydrates for the same intensity. Further, the motion of running does not lend itself to fuelling without feeling discomfort. Which unfortunately means you are going to need to practice in training how to fuel/get used to the feeling. For example, one strategy is going for an immediately after eating a meal, although this should be done with caution, so start with smaller meals. When practicing your fuelling you also need to consider the type of fuel. Although we need to get carbohydrates in the body there are many different forms we can get this (gel, drink solid food etc.). Experiment with different fuel types to see what works for you. However, try and focus on gel or liquid form quick release carbohydrates. A big mistake runners often make is waiting till they feel dehydrated or in need of fuel during race. But by that point it’s too late, you should be feeling little and often throughout the race to prevent this feeling. So definitively how much should you eat? Although it will vary from person to person but roughly aim for 7g/kg of body weight. So for example if you are 63kg you will need 441Kcal of carbohydrates which is a total of 110g of carbohydrates or 28g per 10km of running. Need further help? Drop us an email below. BCA email: info@breakawaycoachingandanalytics.com See are other marathon articles below: https://www.breakawaycoachingandanalytics.com/post/marathon-guide

In the lead up to your marathon you should beginning think about how you are going fuel yourself for the race. Most of us will be burning in excess of 2000 Kcal during the race nearly all of which will come from carbohydrates. So how do we ensure you have enough carbohydrates to get us through the race. Many of you will have heard the term carb-loading, but what is it? Carb-loading is when you supply the muscles with an excess amount of carbohydrates by increasing food intake and is typically done between 1-7 days before the race. Part of the aim of carb-loading is to prevent the phenomena termed ‘Hitting the Wall’, where your carbohydrate stores deplete leaving you with acute fatigue. The typical diet for an endurance athlete should be between 7-12 g/kg of body mass of carbohydrates per day. However, when you are carb-loading this should be increased to 10-12 g/kg of body mass of carbohydrates per day. However, the effect of carb-loading can vary from person to person depending on factors such as training status or genetic factors for example. But, with the right regime you can maximum the gains with carb-loading. So what can you do to maximum the benefits? A limitation to endurance performance is the amount of food are gut can hold and digest. We can improve this by completing a high intensity workout in a fastest state (first thing in the morning for example). Conversely, conducting two workouts per day has also been shown to increase are ability to carbohydrate stores. In the months preceding your marathon you should spend a week where you practice your carb-loading strategy. The perfect opportunity would be to do this in the built up to a B race. See an example week long carb-loading strategy below. So, you now have a good idea for how to ensure you won’t run out of energy during the marathon. If you need further help or have follow up questions drop us an email. BCA email: info@breakawaycoachingandanalytics.com See are other marathon articles below: https://www.breakawaycoachingandanalytics.com/post/marathon-guide

Marathon pacing can account for 14% of your perfomance (marathon time) on the day of the event, so it imporant to get right. But, what is the optimal pacing method? Pacing is about the regulation of your physiological state and the decisions you make (cognative) based off your physiological state, with the aim of maintaining a certain race pace. Pacing ability may vary between person or level ability. For example, women tend to be better pacers than men and more experianced runners tend to have a more optimal pacing stratagy. There are three main type of pacing stratagies, negative split, positive split and even pacing summaried below. A lot of you have probably used a positive split race where you felt lots of excitement at the beginning of the race then go off to fast. Or some of you may have held back for the first while then increased your pace towards the end. Well neither of these strategies are optimal for marathon pacing. To get the most from your performance you should be aiming for even pacing. This means you need to choose (or predict) what you think will be the pace you can sustain for the full duration. You base this pace of your target time and training data. Follow this example to help you. Imagine you are 6 month back from your marathon day last year you achieved a time of 3:10 (hrs: mins) so this year you want to go 2:59 (hrs: mins). Your target pace is 4:15 mins/km or 6:51 mins/mile, therefore your training needs to be build around this number. You should try marathon race pace workouts (or tempo runs) once per week to help this. However, when analysing your training data ensure you check your heart rate for cardiac drift (an increase in HR for a the same pace). If you are noticing a lot of drift (and it’s not due to heat or dehydration) it may be the case your target pace is too hard and needs to be lowered. So part of pacing is having the wisdon on the day to hold your self back and not go looking for the pain but waiting for the pain to come to you. But, its also about how you prepared for your race pace in training and dont forgot to pace evenly. Good luck with your race, if you need help selecting your marathon pace you can veiw the guide linked below. https://www.breakawaycoachingandanalytics.com/post/marathon-race-pace Or if you want BCA to help you find your race pace for you drop us and email and add BCA to your TrainingPeaks account Email: info@breakawaycoachingandanalytics.com Add to TrainingPeaks acount link: https://home.trainingpeaks.com/attachtocoach?sharedKey=QTNQSOVO6T5GK See are other marathon articles below: https://www.breakawaycoachingandanalytics.com/post/marathon-guide

Your RPE stands for Rate of Perceived Exertion and refers to how you feel during a training effort. This is judged on a scale from 1-10 (1 = very easy, 10 = maximum). The below table provides an overview of the RPE scale to help you judge your own training. The table below is an RPE scale that can be applied to all sports (cycling, running and swimming). If you are unsure how hard a workout should feel then refer to this table. If you are finding the workouts feel easy when they should feel hard, you will likely need to update your threshold and training zones. If you want further help please contact BCA with the provided below. Email: info@breakawaycoachingandanalytics.com

When making progress with endurance sports you will have periods of ups and downs (but hopefully on average if you have been training properly mainly ups). A part of these down are periods of illness, so what is the best way to return to training and begin making progress again? Key points: Avoid high intensity training when returning for 2-3 days. First workouts back should be short and low intensity. Allow the body to mostly recovery before training. Take training day-by-day till you feel recovered. Physical active in general will improve your immune system, however, there is a small window of immune suppression after training (particularly after high intensity workouts). Often these are the causes of illness resulting in athletes temporally pausing their training. But what about getting back to training. Well the thing you should know is you are unlikely to lose all your fitness. The body is able to store your condition, so the fitter you are the quicker you can get back, meaning you will not need to start from scratch. Of course, it depends on the severity of the illness, but in general you should restart training from the previous couple weeks, and make sure your first couple workouts are short and low intensity. For example if I am on week 5 of a ten week program I and I got ill, I would start again on week 4 or 3 depending on how I was feeling. I would then avoid intervals for the first 2-3 days. However, what if you are mostly recovered but still have some symptoms of illness? This is something that must be judged on a case by case basis, but the best practice is taking your training day by day. For example with BCA athletes, if they were ill by feel mostly recovered we will take the training day by day till they (and myself) feel comfortable we can resume as normal. The biggest mistake you can make however, is restring to early with training that is to hard. Although it may be frustrating, making this mistake can lead you long term health issues. So be patient and remember as frustrating as it is, getting ill is an inevitable part of the process. BCA Training plan: https://www.breakawaycoachingandanalytics.com/training-plans Contact: info@breakawaycoachingandanalytics.com