chong67

I did 70 miles this past weekend.

Its all flat ride, no up or down hills.

I am burning fat but no carbs right?

I wear a chest strap HRM and that means I am not getting any cardio exercise right?

Is this good or bad or any comments is welcome.

0.0
Anaerobic TE
1.8
Aerobic TE

https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/1898213687

DrIsotope

So long as you were alive you got cardiovascular exercise. I routinely do rides where my average HR is very low Z1, and my max never gets out of Z2. Anaerobic is like, Z5. I'm there for 2-3 minutes on a typical ride... if that.

PM City

I am burning fat but no carbs right?
- You're burning both. Yes you burn more carbs at higher intensities...but you can't ride 70 miles without tapping into both fuel stores

I wear a chest strap HRM and that means I am not getting any cardio exercise right?
- You're getting great cardio exercise. 70 miles is awesome! Takes a lot of fitness to do that

superdex

hope you had someone to chat with. 70mi of Z2 would drive me bonkers

Altimis

I am not human body experts but I know for one thing.

Any exercise that lasts longer than 90-120mins until you stop it, cardio or strength, its does not matter (I believe 70miles is gonna be like . . . 5 hours?).

Your body will burning down your muscle as well, there no way you burn only fat even if you eat perfectly. There no prevention to this.

Yes, you will burn fat if your intensity keep low, but you will also burn some of carbs too because its quicker fuel.

You did 70miles, that's impressive though! that's for sure. Your aerobic power gonna improved a tons after this.

DrIsotope

How about 105 miles of Z1?

3:13 of Z1, 2:49 of Z2... 6 minutes of Z3.

But the avg HR for the day was 137, so that Z2 was all the way at the bottom of my Z2-- sub 145bpm.

Machka 

I think you're a bit confused there.

Even walking is cardio ... and the first thing you'll burn is carbs in the form of blood sugar.

macpolski

I'm trying to train the body to burn fat a bit more selectively as well. Based on my reading, I should keep my HR at or below 113 bpm. I tend to get above that a little, but I'll give it a go for a few weeks. I can say one thing for sure, I can go longer without having to fuel my body; almost 4 hours. A couple of links for anyone interested.

https://philmaffetone.com/180-formula/


How to Fuel Athletics with Fat | Fat-Burning Man

Burn Fat for Health and Performance: Becoming A ?Better Butter Burner? | Natural Running Center

Altimis

That really interesting, I want to try it

But can you tell me how you deal with muscle broke down? you actually lose (some of) muscle from prolonged exercise that lasts longer than 2 hours?

You just simple ride 4 hours straight without fuel?

Seattle Forrest

You did good. Try to do 2 rides (or runs or ...) a week that score 3.0 or higher for aerobic TE, and for most exercise, try to keep the anaerobic number low. Cycling is an aerobic sport. Do anaerobic riding (like hill repeats) 1x per week.

Seattle Forrest

There’s a lot of bro-science around this. Best to ignore most of it.

Your body is constantly cycling between muscle building (anabolic) and muscle breakdown (catabolic) states. There’s nothing specific about bikes for most people, it happens every hour of every day.

Fats and carbs power most exercise. Muscle is a very poor source of energy, it takes a lot of work to unlock not much fuel. It’s not a go to source. A typical male cyclist has about 2,000 to 2,500 kCal of glycogen (carbs) in their system, a woman has a bit less. You can’t use it all on the bike (can’t move it from your arm muscles to your legs) but it’s a lot. We all have an unlimited supply of fat, too, although it takes regular exercise for your body to get good enough at burning it to keep up with the demand. What I’m saying is that muscle is not a preferred source of fuel, and that you have plenty of alternative.

You don’t see many cyclists who look like body builders because this kind of bulk doesn’t help cyclists, and because these are two different sports that both take a lot of time and discipline, so people choose one or the other. It’s not that riding a bike robs people of their arms and legs.

If your goal is to preserve muscle, you need to do three things: follow a progressive strength training program, eat enough protein, and eat enough carbohydrate.

chong67

I read all your comments and its great. Thanks.

Going on a flat ride with long mileages vs going on hilly rides but you dont need that much mileages to burn that same amount of calories. Is it quantity vs quality?

chong67

I cant seen to figure out why after long cycling, your arms get tired. I see people start to lean on the handle.

So there is some form of arm or shoulder exercise too? Not just legs.

macpolski

I don't know about burning muscle for fuel, i'm sure some. I can say that I was pretty much shot when I got home. After reading about training the body to fuel up on fat, I will continue this for about a month. I am also eating low-carb.

superdex

AND it was a loop! You rode on the same roads --more than once in the same ride How could you?

I look at that and all I can think of is, "I'm weak." Bah.

That's kinda old stomping grounds for me -- went to UCR eons ago and my parents are in Banning in a retirement community...

trainsktg

This. At 52 I still look like I did in my 20s (from the neck down ). I do not lift weights anymore per se, but I still do approx. 5-6 hours of progressive calisthenics and kettlebells per week, and my arms, chest, back etc. are still comparable in size and strength to when I was younger. This extra bulk has affected my ability to climb, but not being a competitive athlete, I really don't care... my goal is to improve myself against myself. I ride approx. 10 hours/150 miles w/maybe 8-10k of climbing per week.

Keith

wolfchild

I wouldn't call that exercise, I call that fatigue from being in one position for too long. It's just like sitting in one position for very long becomes uncomfortable after a while.

DrIsotope

On a rigid framed bicycle (like a typical road bike) there are only two forms of suspension: the pneumatic action of the tires, and the shock absorption provided by your body, namely your arms and legs. Most "roadies" are on maybe 25mm tires, and hysteresis is real-- the tires are providing very little in the way of shock absorption. Next time you're riding over a particularly beat up section of road, focus on your forearms. They'll be wiggling and bouncing all over the place-- they're acting as the shock absorbers for your upper body. Do this long enough, and you get fatigue. Do it beyond the point of arm fatigue, and you get a sore neck and shoulders, too.

chong67

Oh I see. I thought its from all the gripping on the handle and your arm trying hard to keep your body upright and balance. So its fatigue vs exercise. :-)

Altimis

I recommend you play with saddle setback

I used to have problems with arms fatigued because I set saddle too far forward, its put too much weights on arms

So I figured this out by set saddle rearward more, this remove too much weights off my arms and get more comfort on long ride

@Seattle Forrest

@macpolski

Thank you both!

Machka 

Yes ... before doing long rides it is good to work on your core and upper body strength too.

Also check your bicycle fit.

Seattle Forrest

Try doing crunches and planks. Your arms should be doing very little of the work of holding you up, it should be your core muscles doing that. I might be on the wrong track here, but this might help a lot, too.

Seattle Forrest

redlude97

to become fat adapted you need to train in a glycogen depleted state. there are various ways of achieving that. Riding long slow distances to eventually deplete glycogen stores and not refueling on the ride, keeping the body in a ketotic state through diet, or intermittant fasting. Be very careful and bring fuel. You will likely bonk hard at least a few times if you aren't used to controlling your training intensity

Iride01 

Fat adapted? what is that?

From what I've read, fat is converted to energy at a fairly constant rate irregardless of your intensity. Stored glycogen from carbohydrates is burned less at low intensity and more rapidly as intensity increases. As to whether fat is burned at all when you go anaerobic, I'd have to look into that. But I don't think being anaerobic is any of the premise you put forth.

So I question how you are going to deplete glycogen on a long slow ride.

But I do totally agree that a long slow ride will burn the most fat. But a faster ride for the same amount of time will probably burn about the same from what I've read.