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Happy New Year Training Tips and Zwift Workout!

With the final hours of 2017 slipping away, I spent some time on my [easyazon_link identifier=”B01GA6Z8FO” locale=”US” tag=”taicoaandthed-20″]Elite Drivo[/easyazon_link] trainer this morning putting the finishing touches on a new holiday workout for you!  Most cyclists view their new year training as a continuation of their usual routine.  But there's no better time to switch it up and make a difference than in the new year!

I've also got a couple of tips in the video below that will help you kickstart your New Year training.  Remember these two things:

1: Most of us are amateur athletes.  As I said in my last podcast of 2017, amateurs plan their training around their life, while pros plan their life around their training.  That means every single minute of training time is precious.  You need to make every minute count, so aim for quality over quantity.  Spend those precious hours training your weaknesses, building a solid functional base and ensuring your body is strong and resilient to ensure a quality cycling season.

2: Consistency is the key to improving your fitness.  If you're not riding with any consistency, you're wasting your time.  Building fitness requires your body to consistently be stressed to force it to adapt.  Get on a plan, stick to a training schedule and you'll see bigger gains than you ever saw before.

In addition to those points, take a look at the short video I put together giving you the details on my new Zwift Aerobic Round Robin workout:

I've also updated my Tailwind Coaching Season Planning Worksheet for 2018.  Yep, it's still a free download, and it's got a couple of additional bits of information attached to it.  There's also a nice coupon code attached to it that applies to any of my downloadable training plans.  All you have to do is download the worksheet and you'll get the coupon code in your inbox!  So what are you waiting for?  Get planning for 2018 and above all, have a happy, healthy and safe new year!  I'm looking forward to helping as many of you as I can in 2018!

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The Best Time Of Day To Train For Massive Fitness Gains

Most people don't think about what time of day they train and how that can affect their fitness gains.  In fact, a lot of people simply look at their training plan, jump on their bike and go when they have some free time.  And that's fine if you're looking to make some improvements from baseline.  But what if you're looking for that extra few percentage points to help get you onto the podium?  What if you're pushing for that big century goal and you need to shave off a few more minutes?

If you're a pro, you plan life around training, but if you're a Joe, you plan training around life.  When you have to plan training around life, time of day can make a big difference in the fitness gains you see.

On this episode of the Tailwind Coaching Podcast, I'll explain to you how the time of day can affect your training.  We'll go over how to determine the best time of day for your body to train and what you gain by figuring that out. You'll also get a few tips and tricks to help you minimize the impact of training off your “peak” time of day.

So if you're ready to biohack your training time and get bigger fitness gains out of the hours you spend on the bike, click through the jump and listen to this episode of the  Tailwind Coaching Podcast.  Don't forget to share with your friends and rate the podcast on iTunes!

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How to Measure Cycling Training Improvements

When a cyclist starts on a training program, there's an expectation that their training will yield improvements.  They should get faster, climb better, become more efficient, or finish higher in the standings.  But other than those end goals, how do you measure cycling training improvements in the middle of a training block?  And more than that, why would you want to measure cycling training improvements during a training block?

Evaluating your training performance during a training block is hugely important to planning your next blocks of training.  If you don't know how your current program is affecting your fitness, how can you adjust it to make further improvements?  If you're not improving enough or worse, detraining due to lack of volume or intensity, you need to know that as soon as possible.

Additionally, measuring your improvement during a training block will give you a good idea where you stand in relation to your goals.  If your power numbers are way down or your aerobic decoupling is poor, you know there's work to do before you can be competitive.  It's sort of a benchmark on the path to your benchmark.

With the “why” out of the way, let's get down to the “how”.  Click through the jump to listen to this episode of the Tailwind Coaching Podcast and learn how to measure cycling training improvements in a ton of different ways.

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The Importance of RPE in Cycling Training

You've no doubt heard about an RPE scale in the past.  You may have even done some of your training by RPE.  But in a world where power meters, heart rate monitors, and analysis software rules, is there any room for this subjective measurement?

I'd honestly argue that it's more important now than ever.

In a sport that has become increasingly dependent upon technology, cyclists are losing that “feel” that separates the good from the great.  The best and most successful cyclists are able to instantly tell you how hard they are working.  It doesn't matter if they're at tempo pace or flat out VO2 max level efforts.  They know.  And knowing is the key to performing.

Click on the jump to find out what RPE is and how it can benefit your training.

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3 Awesome 1 Hour Cycling Workouts

Imagine you're training for a big event and life starts to get in the way.  You start to get tired, overworked and stressed out.  Your cycling workouts are probably going to be the first thing that suffers, right?

Maybe, but with some clever planning, they don't have to.

There's an old adage that some training is better than nothing at all.  If you've only got an hour to burn among all kinds of other obligations, you can still knock out some effective training.  In some cases, a 1 hour cycling workout can be more effective than hours in the saddle.  You just have to know what intervals to do and how to execute them.

At the end of this post, I'll give you three examples of 1 hour cycling workouts that will boost your fitness and keep you on track to meet your training goals.  So click through the jump and pick up some new workouts for those times when life gets in the way.

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