Coaching Smarter Triathletes

The Nutritional Expenses of Cycling. Or: It's Cheaper to Fuel Your Car Than Your Body

Yet Another Cost of Cycling

While sitting in the shade after a ride, chowing on Jen's delicious homemade bread, we discussed how expensive all of the "fake" food is that we eat while riding and running.  Energy bars, powdered drink mixes, and those delicious Clif Bloks that in no way resemble anything from nature.  During long, hard rides and runs their primary benefits are that they are easy to transport, don't spoil, and are readily digestible.  But how much do we pay for those qualities?

The Cost of Real Food

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has compiled a "market basket " of food that provides a nutritious diet for eating at home.  On a regular basis it updates how much it costs to buy all of those items in a grocery store.  The menu is quite healthy--lots of fruits and vegetables and very little processed food, fried items or dessert (It's much more healthy than the way I eat...).  They predict that a single male between the ages of 20 and 50 would spend $57.50 per week to buy the items in this basket.  At 2800 calories per day, this works out to 29 cents per 100 calories. 

The Cost of Triathlon Food

Here's a cost/calorie analysis of some typical food consumed during/after bike rides and runs. 

Energy Bars Energy Drinks

	Cost Per 100 Calories
Energy Bars
Clif Bar	$0.42
Power Bar	$0.53
Energy Drinks
Hammer Heed drink mix  (32 servings)	$0.63
Hammer Perpetuem drink mix(16 servings)	$0.63
Cytomax drink mix (27 servings)	$0.52
Gatorade (51 ounce powdered mix from WalMart)	$0.14
Energy Gels
Clif Bloks energy chews	$0.95
Gu enegy gel	$0.95
Hammer Gel (27 serving jug)	$0.85

These are just some typical prices; you can find cheaper prices by scouring the web and buying in bulk.  Note that energy gels are the most expensive (but generally the most convenient for running), and energy bars are the least expensive (but hard to digest on the run or during a hard ride).  A large container of powdered Gatorade is by far the cheapest--but note that you can't make a super-concentrated mix like the other drinks.  In other words, you're stuck with 150 calories per bike bottle, whereas I can easily put 600-700 calories of Heed into a bike bottle.

The Nutritional Cost of a Bike Ride

Our standard weekly ride through the mountains is a 40 mile loop with 3200' feet of climbing that takes us about 2:30 hours.  We ride this hard without stopping--which means we're either working hard or descending at 35 mph.  In other words, I can only consume and digest energy drinks or gels while riding.  Typically I'll eat a big breakfast two hours before riding, and consume 500 calories of Heed during the ride.  Yesterday I ate a Clif Bar (240 calories) back at the car, and then topped off with various "real" foods.    My Powermeter reported that I averaged 214 watts over this ride, and the Training Peaks software calculates that I burned 1600 calories (or 400 calories per 10 miles).  Which means I needed 860 calories of "real food" to replace the remainder of what I burned.  Here's what it cost me to replenish that fuel.

Source of Calories	Number of Calories	Cost Per 100 Calories	Cost
Hammer Heed	500	$0.63	$3.15
Clif Bar	240	$0.42	$1.00
Real Food	860	$0.29	$2.50
Grand Total	1600		$6.65

The total cost of $6.65 works out to $1.66 per 10 miles.  Note that this is a conservative cost; it doesn't include the espresso smoothies we stopped for on the way home or the fact that I eat at restaurants a lot (both a lot more expensive than eating at home)--I use the USDA market basket cost simply as a consistent guideline to illustrate how cheap it is to eat real food.

Driving Would Have Cost Less in Fuel

I paid $2.95 per gallon of gas here in San Diego last week.  I drive a Toyota Prius, which gets 50 mpg.  Figured another way, it takes $0.59 of gas to drive 10 miles.  I would have consumed $2.35 in gas to drive the same 40 miles that we rode.  Even a car that gets 25 mpg takes only $1.18 to drive 10 miles, or $4.72 to drive the 40 miles. Note that piling all three of us riders into the car would have cost about the same in gas (it would increased the net weight of the car by less than 10%-not enough to make much a difference in fuel economy).   Elizabeth and Jen burned fewer calories than I did (because they're much lighter), but amongst the three of us we probably burned $15 worth of food during the ride.

What About a Real-Life Commuting Example?

To be fair, most people don't commute 40 miles over the mountains (but they do go for a 40-mile recreational scenic drive, which is more the equivalent of what our ride was).  I dug up some Powermeter files from when I was just out tooling around on mostly flat terrain, which is the type of commuting most people do (especially when trying to not work up a sweat).  Using a typical example, I averaged 164 watts and burned 385 calories to ride 12 miles in 45 minutes.  This works out to 320 calories per 10 miles (a full 20% less than riding hard through the mountains).  Since I don't need food during such a short ride, I can replenish those calories with inexpensive "real" food at a cost of $0.93 per 10 miles (320 calories @ $0.29 per 100 calories).  Compare this to the fuel costs of $0.59 per 10 miles of my Prius, or $1.18 per 10 miles of a typical car.

Don't Shoot the Messenger

No, I'm not necessarily claiming that it's cheaper to commute by car than by bike.  I've only looked at fuel costs (food versus gasoline).  I'm not considering fixed capital costs (the cost of the bike versus the cost of the car), maintenance costs (tires, tune-ups, etc.), the value of time spent/saved, parking costs, or insurance.  I'm also not considering the presumed lower health care costs that come with being a fit cyclist --or on the other side of the coin the injury costs of cycling (how many cyclists do you know with broken collarbones?).  There are a ton of variables that go into this equation and will vary for each individual.

But my calculations show that, for me, fueling my car with gasoline costs less than fueling my body with food to ride the same distance by bicycle.  I haven't figured out why this is: I may need a mechanical engineer to give me data on the efficiency of internal combustion engines.  I do know that the human body is quite inefficient (much of our generated power is wasted as heat).  

Type of Transport	Cost in fuel (food or gasoline) per 10 miles
Cycle hard through the mountains	$1.66
Cycle easy on the flats (commuting)	$0.93
Drive a typical car (25 mpg)	$1.18
Drive a Prius (50 mpg)	$0.59

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Comparing a Road Bike to a Triathlon Bike

So I Bought a Tri Bike
For a couple of years I've been content racing triathlons with my road bike (with clip-on aero bars and forward seat post).  I knew that a tri bike would likely shave 5ish minutes off my bike split (on an Olympic distance course), and that it would help with my run (by not burning up my quads as much).  But I put it off, wanting to work on my swim and run, which are by far my weaker sports.  Even a few months ago I was convinced it would be at least another year before I bought one.

Over the past month, a couple of things changed.  First, I've made big progress with my swimming.  Second, on tempo rides with friends I couldn't keep up on my road bike when heading into the wind unless I drafted (which was annoying, because then we couldn't chat (hour-long steady-paced tempo rides can be a bit tedious without some socializing...)).  Third, it was pointed out, "Brian, guys are beating you who shouldn't be."  It might have been this last comment that mattered the most...

Is it Sleek and Sexy?
I did an amazingly little amount of research into bikes before I bought one--except for this: I knew that a proper fit is one of the most important factors in both being aero (going fast) and comfortable (able to stay aero the whole race).   So before I even looked at bikes, I went to the local bike shop and paid to get measured on a "fit bike".  

Training Like We Race: Comparing Two Riding Styles

The Great Western Loop
The Great Western loop is a 40-mile mountainous route in eastern San Diego county.  Featuring long steep climbs (3200 feet of vertical gain), rural lightly trafficked roads, fast descents and scenic wonders, it's a staple ride for a lot of local triathletes. 

It starts with a 20-minute warm-up on the flats, followed by an hour of nearly continual climbing--steep hard hills that demand attention (sometimes just to keep from rolling backward...).  We regroup under an oak tree at the top, and then start on another half-hour of gentler climbs and rollers through an extremely scenic part of the ride.

On this last half-hour I've tended to fall off the back, and hadn't really figured out why--except maybe that I would see the hard part of the ride as being over, and generally would slack off and admire the views. 

For each of the past two weeks I decided to hold the wheels of the people who were always in front on this stretch to see what I could learn. 

Riding Like an Ironman--Smooth and Steady
On July 2nd on this stretch I held the wheel of Elizabeth, who sometimes joins us when she's looking for a short ride.  Elizabeth races a 5-hour 70.3, wins her age group, and is headed to Kona this fall--for her, "riding the Great Western Loop" often means two laps around.  On shorter distances she and I ride at a similar pace, especially when climbing.  I would guess that our power/weight ratios are pretty similar. 

Here's what my power-meter file looked like while holding her wheel for the 7.5 miles of this stretch.  

 

On this file, the solid yellow line is the power in watts, and the blue speed in m.p.h.  Note that the higher speeds coincide with low/zero watts--these are downhills where we're coasting.  A brief spike in power indicates a short rise in an otherwise downhill stretch.

The most notable thing about this graph is the steady application of power.  My normalized power was 210 watts (the straight, dashed yellow line), and all of the climbs ranged from 220 to 270 watts, generally hovering around the 230-240 range.  For me, 210 watts is a zone 3 tempo effort, which is the zone that most non-pros race a half ironman in.  The 230-240 watts is a low zone 4 effort, and is the zone most hit during climbs in a 70.3.  Both of these are solid aerobic efforts, with very little anaerobic activity.

Even though Elizabeth also wins sprint-distance races, her specialty is the half and full ironman distances.  So it's completely expected that she would train primarily in these zones for long distances.  Remember, she often does this loop twice--with the second lap faster than the first.  So it's important that she not fry her legs with anaerobic efforts.

Road Racing--Accelerate, Rest, Hammer, Hang On
On July 9th on this stretch I held the wheel of Matt, who rides this route weekly with me.  Matt is in his second year of triathlon and races sprint and Olympic distances.  His bike splits are generally in the top 10% of the men's field.  For both him and me this 2:30-hour route is usually our long ride of the week, and we finish it with a few-mile transition run (after which we're pretty exhausted and ready for lunch/beer/nap).  Matt and I also ride at a similar pace, and I'd guess that our power/weight ratios are pretty similar.  Here's what my power-meter file looked like while holding his wheel for the 7.5 miles of this stretch.  

  The most notable thing about this graph is the huge accelerations on all of the short hills.  Even though my normalized power was higher (238 watts-the straight dashed line), the spikes above that are visibly much higher than the week before.  These accelerations started at 300 watts, and progressed to 350+ watts.  The 300 watts is zone 5a for me, and readily manageable for a few minutes at a time.  The 350+ watts, however, is an anaerobic zone 5b--a few repeats at this level hurts a lot. 

After the second-such 350-watt acceleration/recovery, I passed Matt at the base of a steep hill and held 270 watts (high zone 4) for 5 minutes.  My thinking was that I really didn't want to have to do another 350 watt acceleration, so I was hoping to tire him out.  It was an effective strategy--at the bottom of the next descent we were both tired and he was content to let me lead with a tempo pace for the last 4-minute climb.

For sprint and Olympic distance triathlons, going into zone 5a on short climbs is very effective for keeping momentum.  Note that my time for this 7.5 miles was 2:30 minutes faster than the week before when I was in zones 3/4.  But the zone 5b is really hard on the legs.  The anaerobic effort builds a lot of lactic acid, which can be really bad for the run.  This style of short, sharp accelerations is very typical of road racers who are trying to drop competitors out of their draft.  But it's maybe not the best strategy in triathlons, where drafting is not legal.

So, Which Style is Better?
It seems that neither style is inherently better--it's just a matter of learning to train and race to fit the courses that you're racing.  For 70.3 races, you'll race primarily in zone 3 and low zone 4 (for climbs).  But training in high zone 4 and even zone 5a will make those race paces much easier. 

For sprint and Olympic distances, training a lot in zones 4/5a is critical, as that's the effort you'll be racing at.  Even some training in zone 5b (30-60 second sprints) is useful, so you can do some short bursts without frying your legs.  But it's important to learn to not spend much time in 5b during a race.  Matt's last race featured a lot of short steep climbs on the bike.  He had a great bike split, but his run pace was well off his typical speed.  My hunch is that, among other factors, he may have gone into 5b too often on the bike.

Training Strategies
Riding with training partners of similar abilities and goals is great in lots of ways.  Matt and I usually push each other into zone 5a and 5b efforts because--well, boys will be boys and that's just how we are.  It can be hard to self-motivate to endure that kind of discomfort.

Riding with Elizabeth seems to involve a lot of story swapping--which almost demands staying in zones 3/4 in order to be conversational.  In fact, Elizabeth is well known for--at the base of long, steep climbs--asking questions that require long, detailed answers.  But that's a whole different training strategy...

Becoming a Swimmer

Big Progress, Big Fun, Gosh this is Hard Work!
In my last post I discussed the immediate results I found from hiring a swim coach.  I spent two one-hour sessions with Rachel, and have since taken a few weeks to practice what I've learned.  Here's a recap of how it's gone:

• I'm still doing mostly ocean swims at a moderate pace.  I'm trying to build to a three-mile wetsuitless ocean swim by the end of summer.  So I'm focusing on building my base endurance, lengthening a long ocean swim each week (I'm now up to around 2 miles), and lengthening the time I can swim without a wetsuit (I'm now up to almost 1 mile, in 67 degree water temps).

• It can be hard to practice technique in the ocean, especially when conditions are rough.  My focus can switch from arm/body position to simply breathing and staying on course.

• I find that when swimming into a chop or current I really want to shorten my stroke and glide less so as not to come to near-stop on each stroke.

• I'm swimming 4-5 days a week.  I find this frequency really helps retain my comfort level in the water, and to not forget the things I've learned. 

• Some of my sessions are short--20 to 30 minutes.  I'm trying to be careful to not ramp up my swim hours too quickly.  In any sport, a sudden burst of training hours is a recipe for injury.

• I'm doing one session a week in the pool of speed work--sets of 50 and 100 yards.

The Results (so far)
My base endurance is improving drastically in ocean swims.  And I can generally keep up with people who I consider solid swimmers.

And as for my speed work in the pool--I'm extremely thrilled with my times.  I consider my swim fitness for speed work extremely low right now.  I've done very little since I was peaking for Wildlfower back in April.  Then I was doing sets of 50 yards, touching in 47 seconds and leaving every 60 seconds.  Yesterday, I did those same sets of 50 yards, touching in 45 seconds and leaving every 55 seconds.   I attribute all of that gain to stroke adjustments.

What's Next?
I (and a lot of others) think that success in triathlon boils down to daily exposure to at least one of the sports--week after week, year after year.  In the first few years of a new sport, that simple repetition--without even worrying about intervals and speed work--can bring huge improvement.
And only after those basic skills (technique and base endurance) have been established do intervals and speed work really pay off.

Looking back on my training diaries, I'm forced to accept that I've not done that with swimming.  While I'm finally dialing in my technique after 3+ years, for most of that time I was only swimming 2 times a week (sometimes less...).  Which was far less than I was running and/or cycling.  No wonder that swimming is my weakest sport.

So, first, I'll continue to swim 4-5 days a week (for frequency of exposure) and continue my long ocean swims to build base endurance.

But, like in other sports (once base endurance and technique have been established), if you only swim slow you'll teach yourself to always swim slow.  So I'll continue my once-a-week pool sessions where I'm doing intervals and speed work.  I'll build my fitness so I can do a mile's worth of intervals,  and then reassess when I get to that point (hopefully within 4 weeks).