Training discussion

Home/Training discussion

3 Tips To Gain Fitness On Every Ride

Many cyclists believe that “riding more” is an ideal way to build more fitness.  A large portion of their training is made up of “objective-less” rides in which they don't have any fitness goal other than to ride their bike.  In reality, more focused training will help you see greater fitness gains in a shorter time, but that doesn't mean you have to go all out and follow a strict training plan.

In this short video podcast, I'll give you 3 tips to gain fitness on any ride you go out for.  Whether you want to crush your group ride, start a race or hit that 18MPH average on your local neighborhood loop, these tips will springboard your fitness to the next level, create a functional fitness base you can build on and set you up for future success.

Don't forget to like and share this podcast with your friends to help them get faster too!

(more…)

Tags: , , , |

The Truth About Cycling Core Strength (Podcast #65)

Core strength is something that most cyclists know about, but don't tend to train very often.  Even if they do train core strength and stability during the off-season (or the “not so off season” as I call it) they tend to ignore it again once the weather turns nice and on-bike training begins in earnest.

That mistake could not be more damaging to your season long cycling progression.

As you'll learn in this podcast, the core of your body is one of the most important parts of your power production on the bike.  A weak core can lead to a variety of problems from neck and low back pain to loss of power, fatigue on long rides and unrealized power.  So click through and start learning about what your core is, why core strength is so important and how you can build core strength with a free preview download of my upcoming Unbreakable Core Stability training plan.

Don't forget to like and share with your friends and help them build their core fitness and strength too!

(more…)

Tags: , , , , |

Beginner Cyclist Training Mistakes (Podcast #64)

We were all beginner cyclists at one time.  There's nothing like the thrill of trying something new and seeing ourselves improve quickly.  Beginners typically improve the fastest out of anyone when they start training, but they often make major training mistakes and not even know it.  These training mistakes tend to limit the fitness gains beginners see and cause them to get discouraged or frustrated and even cause them to stop riding.  That's a huge issue for anyone who's new to cycling.

I'll tell you something else, too.  Beginners aren't the only ones who make these mistakes.  Even long-time veterans to the sport can get caught out making these training mistakes that will hurt their fitness and skill progression.

In this podcast, I'll cover these big training mistakes and give you tips on how to correct them.  So click through and find out if you're making these training mistakes:

(more…)

Tags: , , |

Get More Sweet Spot Training

Sweet spot training is one of the biggest “bang for your buck” workouts available to an athlete, especially early in the season.  WEven when you're late into a season, sweet spot training can give your regular interval work a significant boost.  Even once your season has been shut down and you're cruising through the off-season, some weekly sweet spot training can help to keep your fitness from degrading too much as you wind down and rest.

Unlike high-intensity interval work, sweet spot training takes longer and leads to slightly different adaptations.  It takes up a little more time than typical high-intensity interval training, but it is easy to recover from and the value per minute of training is huge.

In this podcast, I'll go through the definition of sweet spot training, some of the benefits and some ways to get more sweet spot training into your workouts.  As a bonus, you can pick up a free copy of my power testing and fatigue resistance tool (which I'll explain how to use during the podcast) at the end of the show notes!

Don't forget to share with your friends and click through for the show notes:

(more…)

Tags: , , , |

Am I Overtraining? How Can I Prevent It? (Podcast #62)

Athletes are a notoriously hard working bunch, carving out a dozen or more hours each week to train for their chosen sport.  Especially with cycling, there is a misconception that “more is better” and it often leads to overextending yourself.  Remember that training stress stacks up on every other stress in your life: family, work, kids, paying bills, doing tasks around the house, etc.  It's easy to turn a blind eye to the stress you deal with every day and focus solely on your training stress, but in reality, you're doing yourself a disservice.

This is generally the reason the busiest athletes find themselves stuck in an every declining spiral of training, declining performance and training harder, hoping to reverse the trend.  Overtraining is a condition where the body is taxed beyond it's ability to recover, and is a very real condition that I see in a certain percentage of athletes.  And yes, it's mostly the guys who get up at 4AM to train for 2 hours, get to work by 7AM, work hard all day, get home by 6PM only to eat, walk the dog, spend time with kids and go to bed late.

Then they repeat it the next day.

And the next day, and the next, over and over.

When performance starts declining, typically they add more training, maybe an after-work session or a longer morning session, hoping to see the trends reverse and performance to climb again.  Usually, it doesn't work, overtraining sets in and suddenly, they've dug a deep hole they're stuck in.

In today's podcast I'll discuss the signs and symptoms of overtraining as well as some of the ways to dig yourself out of the overtraining hole if you find yourself there.  Don't forget to leave comments below or on the Tailwind Coaching Facebook page, don't forget the coupon code at the end of the show notes and don't forget to share with your friends by clicking the bubbles on the left of the page!

(more…)

Tags: , , , , |
Copyright Tailwind Coaching 2012-2017 | All Rights Reserved | Tailwind Coaching is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.