The Coach(ed) Corner: Tucson training camp

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By Jason Sumner

Up until a few weeks ago, my personal “camp” experiences had never gone very well. The one time I went to soccer camp, when I was 10, I cut my knee on a rock, got stitches, and later ended up on a flight for life helicopter when the whole mess got so infected one of my doctors said they might have to amputate. Fortunately the antibiotics kicked in and I got to keep my leg, but I never went back to soccer camp.

Another time, my mom and I drove her orange and white VW camper van to my sister’s 4-H camp in upstate New York for family weekend. But right before I was about to ride a horse for the first time in my life, I got floored by allergies and spent the rest of the day sneezing and blowing my nose.

Since then, the only camping I’ve done involved a tent — and no counselors. But that changed a few weeks back when at the invitation of Steve Owens, CEO of Colorado Premier Training, I headed down to Tucson for a weeklong CPT Base Camp. The premise was fairly simple: escape the Colorado cold and spend five days rolling around scenic southern Arizona. Besides planning ride routes and providing sag wagon support, Owens and CPT premier level coach Rick Crawford conducted daily lectures on the dos and don’ts of early-season training.

On the morning of our first ride, Crawford laid out the basics of a solid pre-season program.

“As athletes, we try to pile as much load on our bodies as possible, and to do that you need a good base. Otherwise everything you build on top will eventually collapse,” he explained to our diverse group that ranged from a 40-someting from the Cayman Islands that raced track at the 1988 and ‘92 Olympics and is still fast as hell, to a 60-something retiree who held his own all week, to an aspiring pro from Phoenix, to several collegiate hopefuls, to a few weekend-warriors like me.

Exactly what form base takes varies from rider to rider, depending on variables such as years training and when you’re first race is. The more fit the individual is the shorter the base period needs to be and the quicker you can move into more intense training. Generally the idea is to spend the first two months of your season getting in those long-slow-distance miles. Pros will typically do higher volume, about 30-plus hours a week, versus 15-20 for the rest of us.

“Intensity is not going to be the same for everyone,” continued Crawford. “But in general you want to be around 70 percent of max heart rate.”

He preaches heart rate-based training — and not power — because, “base training should be system focused.” The idea is that you really need to listen to your body, because on a day when you’re dehydrated or tired (or hungover like this camper was on New Year’s Day), your heart rate will be higher than normal. If you only look at watts, you can end up pushing yourself too hard.

“At the beginning of the base building phase expect your heart rate to be up and your power to be down,” Crawford predicted. “But as you advance through those two months, your heart rate will begin to fall and power will come up.”

Another focus area is what Crawford calls the, “sparing of the central nervous system.” The way he sees it, humans can only tolerate so much hard bicycle riding in any given year before they simply run out of energy, interest or both. If you start hammering right out of the gate, you’ll start, “depleting the CNS too early,” he added. “That’s bad because it’s a limited resource that you need to save for the real race season.”

Of course the flipside is that riding around in Zone 2 for four or five hours at a time isn’t particularly stimulating. But Crawford warns that it’s best to not, “put your ‘mojo’ into training.”

To combat boredom, the Durango, Colorado-based coach suggests that base rides include add-ons such as alactic sprints (going all out for 5-10 seconds, 4-5 times per ride), one-leg drills (2 minutes per leg per day, 30 seconds at a time) and cadence work (split your rides into thirds, spinning high, normal and low cadence). All this will help get you ready for the race season — and keep you from crashing into the back of a parked car because you were daydreaming.

Coach Neal Henderson also advocates these drills, adding that a little early-season intensity here and there isn’t a bad thing. My program this week included lots of base miles, plus one solid 30-minute, Zone 3 tempo climb.

Whichever base-building method you choose, Tucson is certainly a great place to do it. The weather during our weeklong camp (December 28-Januray 3) was basically perfect: daily highs in the low 70s, no clouds, no rain. And there are tons of ride options that were easily accessible out the front door of our hotel in the north of the city.

The best of the bunch were the ascents of Kit Peak and Mount Lemmon. Kit Peak was a little tough to get to. We actually shuttled to the other side of the city before jumping on bikes, and even then you had to ride a pretty drab, dead straight road for a few hours. But the climb itself was stunning — 10 miles at 6-7 percent, with sweeping desert-panorama views all the way up.

My only word of caution for this ride — and really any in the Tucson area — is that the roads are frequently littered with glass and other junk, making flat tires commonplace. During the weeklong camp, our group suffered at least a dozen, including three for yours truly. Best bet is to mount up a pair of beefy training tires before you head down. CPT special guest host Danny Pate rode all week on a pair of tires that looked like cyclocross slicks.

Mount Lemmon (named for a famous botanist not a misspelled fruit) is the iconic ride in the Tucson area. The nuts and bolts are a 27-mile climb that starts at 2389 feet and gently rises to 9157. The grade is gradual the whole way, so unlike on Kit Peak it’s actually possible to stay in base building mode. The scenery on Lemmon is picture-book perfect, transitioning from saguaro cactus-filled desert to alpine forest that this time of year is frequently blanketed in snow.

I spent part of the ride chatting with a Fort Lewis College team rider who’d been in Tucson for a few weeks. He and his buddies had initially planned on doing the Lemmon climb on Christmas Eve, but were advised not too because the road is packed with city dwellers who head up there to fill their pick-up trucks with snow, then speed down so they can have a (brief) white Christmas.

Even during our ascent a week after Christmas, the route was packed with sightseers, skiers (yes, there’s a ski area up there) and sledders. But the road’s shoulder are plenty wide so it wasn’t a major hassle.

Bottom line for the week was that despite a few organizational snafus here and there, we all had a good time, which as I discovered in my youth is the key to being a happy camper.

Just a couple questions this go round. If you would like to ask Coach Neal Henderson a question please send e-mail to CoachNealQandA@gmail.com. Remember to include your name and hometown. Questions may be edited for content and clarity.

Coach,
I’m 17 and just got my first road bike this summer, a beautiful red Specialized Allez. I’ve ridden nearly 3000 miles since August, and have started to entertain thoughts of racing. But the bad news is that last week I was diagnosed with hypoglycemia, and the doctor made a point to say I wouldn’t be able to race — or maybe even ride hard ever again. What’s your call? Should I hang up the jersey or can I fight this one?
Hans
Aurora, Colorado

Hans,
I’d be surprised if cycling wasn’t in your future in some way. But first I’d recommend that you start working with an endocrinologist, and sports nutritionist or registered dietician with knowledge of sports nutrition. With careful monitoring of your glucose levels, you should have no problem being able to exercise, and even training and racing.

Athletes that are diabetic have similar concerns as yours, yet we’ve had Olympic medalists in endurance sports that are insulin dependant diabetics. So there’s no reason you shouldn’t be able to ride. You just are going to have to work with a physician on getting control of your blood glucose levels and not getting hypoglycemic.

If you don’t get it under control it can be a dangerous situation. But if you are controlling and monitoring blood glucose levels you should be okay. It’s possible that your hypoglycemia is a result of diabetes, but again there are plenty of elite level athletes that are diabetic. In fact the Team Type I cycling team is filled with diabetic cyclists, so it might be worth checking out their website to get more information.

Good luck and be safe,
Neal

Hello Coach Neal,
I’m in my mid 60’s and use a CatEye CS 1000 indoor trainer that measures wattage. Are you aware of any wattage data for older cyclists? I asked one of the coaching software producers and they had no idea.
Thanks,
Bill

Hi Bill,
I’m assuming you’re looking for normative ranges, aka power profiling data. Unfortunately what I have seen is not age graded. Instead it’s based off world best performances. However, there is definitely some decrease in all power values as we age, especially advanced age. But to me the real key when using power should be not seeing if your power output or watts per kilo is at a competitive level, but where you are right now, what your goals are, and then making sure you are training effectively to reach those goals. That should lead to higher placings or better performances, depending of what your goal is.
Best,
Neal

His coach, Neal Henderson, is sports science manager at the Boulder Center for Sports Medicine and a well-regarded elite-level coach. Henderson’s clients include 2008 Olympian and Team Livestrong rider Taylor Phinney. Henderson is also the winter triathlon coach for the U.S. national triathlon team, and was named 2008 USA Cycling National Development Coach of the Year. Henderson is working with Jason Sumner on a pro bono basis.

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