#cycle training

[britishcyclesport]

Riding Back to Fitness: Part 4

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[aarna-and-revansh]

Revansh Tries Cycling Without Training Wheels Pt-1

[stevestonbike]

Training and fitness

Until you are fit all workouts and activities are training.  Once you are fit it is something else, but it gets fuzzy fast.  Am I training, or doing something I like?

I have been involved in training many people in road cycling.  I have one great advantage over professional coaches and “personal trainers.”  I know what it was like in the before time.  I know what it is like to start out and be in the “deer in the headlights mode.”  I know what it is like to be in “why the F am I doing this mode.”  Empathy.

My first formal experience was when I volunteered to assist in a program run by Granfondo Canada to train people to do my favorite ride.  I vividly recall the first coaching get together.  I was in a room full of freaking Olympians and almosts.  Local racers and champions all united in wanting to help grow the sport.  I was the oldest.  I was the errr..heaviest.  I was the slowest.  The leader was this waif of a woman with a degree in sports science who you think could blow away in the slightest breeze.  Damn Fast she was actually.  She announced the goal of the program was to train absolute newbies to ride 121km (uphill) in an average of 25 kph. My hand shot up.  “Excuse me, but I have done that ride twice and I was hours longer than that.  Is a time goal reasonable?”

Thing is these people were all full on highly trained athletes.  They had a hard time understanding what newbies go through. They started as children. A huge part of that is in many newbie’s minds failure is not only an option, but pretty likely.  Anyway I declared myself spokesman for the old and the lame and the fat.  Oh and EVERYONE who completed that program did not fail to make it all the way on the day.

Over the last 3 years I have been training the newbies for the Lotus Club on the road. They have professional coaches once a week for 90 minutes, but I avoid those sessions.  I disagree with much of their instruction. Too much cheer leading and methods used in racing, but not club riding.  Anyhow I have had a few dozen pass through my Charlie group.  I have done a fair bit of this.

I am thinking of this as I am a bit back off my peak right now.  I am turning my training skills back on myself.  Even though things feel hard I am still doing them.  I remember starting out and the mistakes I made.  I cannot remember what actually motivated me to keep it up back then.  I have kept it up at a serious level for like 15 years now. (20 years with a few years of hiatus recovering from a bad crash).  Last night I did a HIIT session and it was hard.  It was identical to the run I did 4 weeks ago.  Then I had a no trouble holding the numbers, last night I had a lot of trouble.  I know it will come back.  I want it back.

Fitness is being fit to do a thing.  If you are a runner you are fit to run.  If you lift weights you are fit for that.  Regardless of your training methods the goal MUST be to do something with it.  It may be a competition, or a race, or what I call a personal Everest which is something like doing a marathon, or climbing a mountain or riding 100 miles. Doing workouts in say a gym must lead to something outside the gym.  Fitness is a lifelong commitment.  I do not want to spend all that time in a gym.

Fitness is not a number.  It is not so many pounds or kilograms.  It is not having a big ass like that Kardashian person.  It is not a tape measure.  It is what you can do with the body you worked on.  Oh and that thing must be fun.

Road biking is fun.  It is like riding Motorcycles but without a big fat belly you see on Harleys.  (I have had a motorcycle license since 1972) I have encouraged people up mountains they were sure they could never do.  I do not cheer lead with “you can do it!” I just tell them they are doing fine and the top is closer than they think.  They are surprised to find real euphoria at the top.  Full on euphoria most like a non-sexual orgasm.  Those endorphins are addicting.  Now those people want to do it again and again.  It is a little crazy, but a good crazy.

I have advised people through weight loss journeys too.  This large man I work with wanted to lose weight and took on a personal trainer and literally worked his ass off.  He lost 80 pounds and went down to a single chin.  He was still big, and could have lost 50 more, but his goal was that number to hit by his wedding day.  He did it.  It was a hard journey.  He fretted that once he started out heavy workouts he gained weight.  I explained that he was growing muscles and those are heavier than fat.  They will also let him burn more with a new bigger engine.

That engine worked hard, but it was all in a Gym.  One day near the end his trainer put him on a treadmill and had him go one full hour.  Next day he told me that he did over 6 miles on the session.  I casually asked if he was going to sign up for a 10k run. One hour is a decent time for 10k, which is about 6 miles (6.21 actually) The realization that he had done 10k was a shock to him.  It was a triumph. He did a few 10k runs but was disappointed that he was being passed by old men.  That embarrassment made him quit running. There were other things too including a divorce. He went back to old habits and has a double chin again. I have not criticized him for that.  Every journey is personal.  I did tell him to buy a bike though.

[aromaticfog]

I need to make more of an effort to log my fitness progress, so I’ll start with yesterday’s first training ride for the imminent Cape cycle Tour.

[stevestonbike]

A bit better.

I did the FTP drill again last night.  It felt better. I did not die after 3 x 120 second cycles. I ran out of gas at 5.  I dogged the 6th and got back to speed on the last one.

The basic structure is 3 minutes warm up where you ramp up to FTP power. Next 110 seconds at FTP then 10 seconds of double that (or AHAICG) then repeat that 6 more times.  End with 3 minute spin down.

This is from GCN training videos which I had to watch and take notes so I could program my app to cue me.  It was devised by one of their retired racers who used the method when he was a pro.  Actually the entire crew are retired racers so they represent that pointy end of the bell curve of human potential.  Those guys are mutants. 

My basic power improved a tiny bit. But it did feel better meaning my endurance at that power was better.  Power is Watts, endurance is time.  If I improve a similar amount by next time I may actually do the drill properly. Woo Hoo.

So here better is being not as bad as before.  I will take that to avoid the frustration monster.

I explained before that doing stuff outside is far better than any inside drill.  I need no special motivation to get to the top of a hill.  Home is on the other side. If you can ride with someone of a similar capacity it is even better as it motivates you to pass them.  If I am on an outside ride and find another rider that I am closing on it motivates me to push a bit harder and catch them.  Conversely if I see a person I cannot catch even with an effort I quickly give up.

Part of that is motivational, part is realism.  If you push too hard during a ride you pay for it for the rest of the ride.  Even a world class athlete has a finite capacity.  Mine is just a lot more finite.  When I decide to try a PB on 8 minute hill I take the ride out there easy.  If I do well on that hill in the middle of a long ride I get a warm satisfied feeling even if it is less than a PB.

A number of people on the Strava Lotus group do Zwift rides.  Those are virtual video game rides.  If you have a computer and a smartish trainer you can play.  It simulates a real ride, but it is still inside with a fan and a towel.  The GCN crew are big fans of Zwift, but they are a commercial YT channel and they get money from somewhere. My green monster trainer is the minimum type that would work on Zwift, but it is yet another subscription service, and I would use it for maybe 3 months of the year.

There is still no comparison to a real ride.

If all goes smoothly I may be in summer shape a month early.

[thecyclegym-blog]

Remember, stay specific to the sport you are training for...

Hey Champions! Today I want to discuss a common mistake that I hear all the time. I have many consultations with both online clients and people who come in to our studio. We start with consultation to dig deeper into what the client is doing, what they've done, what they want to do/achieve and much more to make sure that we create the right path for them. When you start training or begin a training plan, you want to make sure that you are being as specific as possible to make sure that you develop the right muscles and aerobic systems. This means that you should concentrate on aspects of training that will enhance your performance. Some examples of this would be: - don't lift massive weights if you want to climb hills faster. Increased muscle mass is heavy and will slow you down. Also a heavy weight squat is a slow movement. You want to do lots of repetitions of fast movements so that it replicates what you do on a hill. - if you have a PT or are doing PT type classes, make sure that they know your goals and that your exercises are specific to the training period. - If you want to be faster, work on speed. If you want to be more powerful, work on power. If you want to be a faster hill climber, work on being faster up hills. - Work on the discipline the most that will have the biggest impact on your event time - Don't sit on a watt bike and peddle aimlessly just because British Cycling tell you its the best training tool since sliced bread (a little secret...it's not the most specific training tool you can use for cycling). Many clients I see/talk to just throw stuff in because someone else does it or because they heard/read it was a good idea. My advice to those who are taking on an event next year is to get as specific as possible. Talk to a professional who will give you their best informed decision based on their past experiences. Have a great day, Graham Owner - The Cycle Gym P.S. If you are wondering whether some coaching would help you, we have a free 10 minute coaching consultation available. If you would like one, just fill out your details below and we will call you back.   (function(d, s, id) { var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s); if (d.getElementById(id)) return; js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id; js.src = "//forms.aweber.com/form/99/1200684399.js"; fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs); }(document, "script", "aweber-wjs-9127yriqy")); Read the full article

[thecyclegym-blog]

What Cycle Training Should you do in October...

Hey Champions! How are you today? This week we have moved away from endurance and are now concentrating on power. The first couple of weeks we just get back into the flow of things so that the body remembers what its like to train again! Many people use September as a bit of time off so we can't just jump right back into the thick of things. I test a couple of measurements in the first month which is FTP and Max Power. We keep things simple because we don't want to create any confusion. The FTP allows us to understand your aerobic capacity and the Max Power gets a measure on your anaerobic power. We then have two base points to start with at the beginning of the season and we look to build on those over the course of the winter to come out stronger, faster and fitter. If you want to get more technical and have data from previous years, we can mirror up the two years at the same period of time and compare what you were like the previous year vs this year and see if you are starting from a stronger point than the previous year. Also, these testing points give you a couple of goals to achieve. The clients that have started already have got a headstart and are already starting to notice the benefits of that early start. They are already watching their diet, how much stress or exercise they are doing and how all of this fits into their overall goal. If you start later than November, you will run the risk of playing catch up and doing too much too early and not getting to where you want to be at the beginning of the season. If you want some help with online coaching, studio based coaching then make sure you contact us today. Have a great weekend! Be Champions! Graham Read the full article

[debt-agreement-administrators-f]

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