Imagine sitting down with someone and having a coaching discussion at your dining room table. That’s basically what my “coaching discussion” archives are. These archives are a repository for all the coaching discussion I’ve penned in the past few years.
Browse through the archives of my coaching discussion and learn how to be a stronger cyclist. Don’t forget you can contact me with questions or check out the Tailwind Coaching Newsletter for more great coaching discussion.
This time of year, the focus of your questions has turned from how to get strong and fit for upcoming events to wringing the most out of your training time. If you are anything like the 99% of cyclists for whom riding a bike isn't a job, you have limited time to train and need to get the most out of each hour. I'll wager that these questions that I'm getting will apply to many of you out there. It's true that no question is a stupid one, and since there's a lot of valuable information in each of the topics I'll talk about, I've put them together into a podcast intended to help you boost your training outcomes.
In this episode of the Tailwind Coaching Podcast, I'll explain how you can boost your fitness and increase your training outcomes with some simple techniques. After the jump, you'll be able to peruse the show notes and read a synopsis of what's talked about in this episode.
Don't forget to hit the like and share buttons on the left to share this information with your friend, group ride buddies and teammates!
Now, learn how to boost your training outcomes with these simple tips:
Cornering is an important cycling skill to master if you're going to ride efficiently (and safely) and understanding apexes is a critical part of cornering properly. Since there's so many potential spots for error, cornering is a fine balancing act comprising a number of different forces, but everything falls into place more easily when you can learn how to cut an apex properly, and how to choose the proper apex for each corner you encounter.
Cutting an apex allows you to do a number of things more safely, including carry a higher amount of speed into each corner. Knowledge of how to properly execute different apexes will also help to keep you out of trouble with traffic, prevent panic braking and set you up for any terrain that's beyond the curve in the road (even if you can't see it.) Proper use of apexes will also foster and encourage proper cornering skills like correct weight distribution and looking through the turn to the exit point.
In this excerpt from my upcoming “corner like a pro” online course, I'll diagram different apexes and explain the nuances of each one. Click through for more information and the key points to take home:
Among the many weapons in the armament of the cyclist who wants to ride stronger, one of the least practiced and most important is VO2 max repeatability. The ability to accelerate and push your body to the limits, recover at threshold and repeat that process over and over is one of the most versatile and important skills for a cyclist to possess. It's also the one that's almost always lacking in the cyclists that I consult with or coach, and it's one I drill home in my training plans.
The real question most people follow up with is “why?”
Before I answer, first let's delve into VO2 max a little bit. For our purposes, a VO2 max level effort (or a Zone 5/Z5 effort) is a suprathreshold effort that is sustainable for around 3-8 minutes (depending on the intensity of the effort.) It is a mixture of aerobic and anaerobic energy production and is most often used in pursuits, attacks, bridging small gaps and short climbs. By the numbers, it's an 8 to an 8.5/10 on an RPE scale, 105%-120% of Functional Threshold Power and >105% Lactate Threshold Heart Rate.
After the jump, I'll give you some more detailed information and a couple workouts to help you build your Zone 5 Repeatability (Z5R).
Have you ever arrived to a ride a few minutes later than you wanted and just jumped on your bike and rolled off with the group? Do you remember how you felt? I'd wager that you were probably feeling stiff, awkward and it took you a long time to actually warmup to where you were comfortable and powerful on the bike.
Knowing the consequences of “rolling cold” why do coaches and friends alike have to constantly remind each other to warm up before we ride? We all know better, and we shouldn't have to be asked the question “why should we warm up before we race (or even ride).”
It's staggering how often I hear this, and it amazes me that people still haven't accepted that they need to warm up before they hit the road in order to have a good performance. Even more amazing is the number of people who are under warming up, or not warming up to match the effort they are preparing for.
It's time to put a stop to this; we'll explore why we warm up, what it does for our body and then see an example warm up workout.
So you're thinking about racing a bike, but you're concerned about the cost.
You're not the only one, apparently.
Recently, an article in the UK based Telegraph caused a little bit of a stir in the cycling world, claiming that the cost of racing was approximately £25,000. £25,000!! Adjusted to USD, that's around $39,000! That's a salary for a lot of people!
And that's completely insane.
There's no earthly reason racing a bike needs to cost that much. In fact, if you read other articles by the same author, you get a different impression: the author is racing at an elite level, attempting to recapture a lost opportunity of his youth. He's not starting off racing a Cat 5 criterium, or a weekend stage race where you're competing against other guys who are coming out to have a little fun and maybe sprint for a pair of tires. We're talking two different worlds here.
But the article did get me thinking about what IS the cost of racing a bike? And if you wanted to start racing a bike today, what would you need to lay out in terms of dollars and cents. That's what I'll explore in today's podcast, along with some helpful tips to get you ready to race for the first time.
Click through for a breakdown of what it takes to race on the elite level, and what you need to race on the local level:
