To get the free “Berg Buster” workout, all I ask is that you like or share this workout with your friends, and challenge them to become a berg buster!
After the jump, you can pick up this free workout:
We can all appreciate a slick shifting drivetrain, and we all hate it when our drivetrain turns on us. One of the easiest ways to prevent this from happening is to ensure your chain is sized correctly. When too long, it can cause premature derailleur wear, shift poorly and bounce around with the potential of derailing. When too short, it can jam the drivetrain or cause the derailleur to actually snap. But you don't have to worry about this unless you have to put on a new chain, right?
Not necessarily. Quite often, this issue starts at the LBS: many chains are not properly sized from the factory and some shops don't necessarily check this on every bike. If you should try to “match the length” of the current chain when putting on a new one, this can often result in a chain that is too long or too short, depending on the condition (and length) of the previous one. But how do you become a pro at sizing your chain to the correct length? It's as simple as doing the one thing you never should: crosschaining.
You can read more about it after the jump:
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:
Without further ado, in 2015 I believe…
