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.
If you don't know the strengths and weaknesses of your fitness, how can you possibly begin to work on them? If you don't analyze your season, how can you possibly know your strengths and weaknesses? Sure, you can probably guess at those strengths and weaknesses and you might get some of them right, especially the glaring ones like “I can't climb too well”. Some other weaknesses aren't as obvious, and guessing at your fitness strengths and weaknesses, training blind and then hoping for the best is a ticket to failure, or if not failure, sub-optimal performance in races, group rides and fondo rides.
It should sound obvious that you need to do some evaluation of last season's failures, but you should also evaluate your successes so you can improve upon your best performances. In this episode of the Tailwind Coaching Podcast I'll discuss some tricks for what went right and what went wrong last season, along with why you're reviewing your season now and how to change your training in the coming months.
Click through for show notes and more information:
When you hear the term “cycling base training” many of you think of cycling base training, involving long slogs through frozen tundra and icy winds. Those of you who are racers or competitive fondo riders may believe that the necessary base miles for competitive cycling are long, boring and low intensity, with little variety. Other, more recreational riders may think about watching the Tour de France while they spin away on the indoor trainer for a couple hours per week, hoping to get a jump on their group riding buddies. I've got a newsflash for you: those impressions are OLD SCHOOL and couldn't be further from the truth.
In reality, base training should be taken to it's most primal definition, one that's hidden within the term itself. “Base training” should be the activity done to build a solid BASE for your future fitness, both on and off the bike.
Just like the base of the human body is the core (everything attaches to it, everything works through it, so it's the true base of the body), the base of your fitness involves the core and everything contained within it, including your heart, lungs, and cardiovascular system. As an extension of your core, your legs have something to do with this too. Since they're the stems that attach your core to your pedals and they are important to build a base of fitness for as well. So it's not just accumulating saddle time that should be your focus (although you really do need saddle time), but what you do WHILE accumulating saddle time.
In this episode of the Tailwind Coaching Podcast, I'll talk about the importance of base training and how you can be more effectively base training than you are now.
Read more after the jump, including:
Have you ever heard that your body doesn't get stronger through training? It's an odd thing to think about, but it's inherently true. Training is the overloading stimulus that (hopefully) pushes your body beyond it's comfort zone. Once you've pushed beyond the constraints of your fitness you need to allow the body to repair the damage that has been done to it and build it stronger for the next challenge. But the recovery phase is something that many cyclists completely ignore, opting instead to sit on the sofa or worse, go for a recovery ride that turns into a workout.
In today's 50th episode of the Tailwind Coaching Podcast, I'll detail some of the do's and don'ts of recovery, including:
Getting fat. That's the last thing anyone wants to hear over the off season, especially during the holidays. The simple fact is that the holidays are notorious for being able to pack the pounds onto a cyclist. There are parties aplenty, goodies in the office (usually in the form of high-calorie desserts), feasts with family and the ever-present alcoholic beverage, just begging for you to imbibe.
It's easy to overdo it during the off season and find yourself in a hole come January. But there is a way to start melting off those excess inches that doesn't involve giving up tasty meals of spending hours per day on the trainer. And that simple way involves putting a little more fat in your gullet.
What?!
You heard me right. If you understand the physiology of how our body processes the fuel it is given, you'll be able to make some smart dietary choices. And if you stick with some of those changes for the long term, you'll realize some performance benefits as well.
In this episode of the Tailwind Coaching Podcast, I'll get into some of the science behind nutrition and exercise adaptation. You'll find the following information discussed in this episode:
There's no question that social media has infiltrated every facet of our lifestyle. From the best cycling hashtags on Instagram to the ubiquitous “butt shot” of the local Sunday group ride that is posted on Facebook, we have an insatiable need to connect with others on social networking. Cycling is no different, as evidenced by the rise of Strava, the largest cycling social media sharing site out there today. But Strava is far more than people just sharing their rides and their achievements online: it has become the driving force behind many people's cycling experiences. Offering almost monthly challenges and goals (often revolving around excessive mileage or vertical gain) and offering virtual rewards in the form of “badges”, Strava has become the impetus for people to train.
How has that success and impetus impacted us as a cycling culture? How has it changed the way we train? And of course, the ultimate question remains: have those changes been for the better or worse? That's what I'll explore on this edition of the Tailwind Coaching Podcast, including topics such as:
