Just One Mile (J1M)
1) One mile. Every runner knows their one-mile time.
What about cyclists? Indoors, the penalty for stopping is minimal. No one even gets left behind! But truthfully, how long does it take you to pedal a mile? This week’s profile seeks to answer that question.
2) I often mention that one mile running is 3 to 4 miles on a bike. If you take a 10-minute mile, you’re looking at two and a half to three minutes for your mile. The (once) mythical four-minute mile for runners would require a super-human effort on the bike. According to Guinness, the fastest mile on a bike was done in just under 58 seconds. The average recreational cyclist pedals about 16 miles per hour — or about one mile every 3 minutes and 45 seconds
3) The profile focuses on sustained power. Asking you to maintain an elevated effort versus peaking (then stopping). We’ve used the analogy of “getting first downs” . . . Finding how long it takes you to pedal a tenth of a mile (I.e., getting a first down) and then repeating it. The playlist eschews Hail Mary's or long bombs and favors incremental progress.
4) Not losing your breath is key to pedaling a mile without recovery. So we introduce a new term: sweet spot training (SST). Your sweet spot is achieved when working between 84 and 97% of your functional threshold (or 75 - 85% of your max heart rate).
Source: Source: http://www.intraawareness.com/body/cardio/
Illustration: Frank Overton / FasCat Coaching Blog
5) The underlying goal of sweet spot training is honing your ability to identify and maintain intensity. Using either heart
rate or power (which is better . . . there is a debate), you must be able to maintain a pace. The consequences of losing your breath while running (even on a treadmill) are much different than indoor cycling. You can always “look” fast on a bike. Power/watts are often optional:)
6) This week’s artwork is from Joni Mitchell’s eighth album Hejira. Released in 1976, it marks the point she stopped playing with rock musicians and began working with jazz players. Mitchell wanted the instrumentation to complement her voice and felt the rock drums overpowered her vocals. Her new band understood Joni’s voice, not the instrumentation, should be at the forefront of the music. Sonically, it sets Mitchell in a new direction.
7) The word ‘hejira’ means exodus; a journey undertaken to escape an adverse circumstance or situation. Speaking of journeys, this week marked five years since the WOrld Health Organization labeled COVID a global pandemic and we all got sent home. From a fitness perspective, what’s changed in your life since March 2020? Have you gone from exercising to training? I loved that Nike campaign (see below).
I just loved Nike’s campaign around this notion from a few years back. Using heart rate as a feedback loop to track progress is one way to move beyond just exercising.
Yes, fitness can be fun, but achievement is so much better.
8) Today’s class asks for just one mile. But what if you needed another and another? For 30 hours? Just. One. Mile chronicles a race in which runners must traverse a treacherous one-mile loop in 20 minutes. Their reward? To do it again, and again, until one person is left.
9) One mile isn’t a renowned distance in cycling because cycling is based on kilometers. The hour record is the distance professional cyclists revere. The holder of the record is rarely a decorated rider. Time-trialists, cyclists who excel at riding long distances without help from others, tend to chase the hour record. Their ability to pace themselves at higher intensities lends itself to pursuing the record.
As of this blog post: the women’s record is 50.2 km (31.2 miles) and the men’s record is 56.7 km (35.2 miles). Respectively, that’s a mile pace of 1:55 and 1:42!
[FYI, this profile was last ridden on January 12th.]