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Post by Muller on Jan 19, 2016 14:35:07 GMT
5 Steps to Pedal Power Most of us learn how to pedal a bike when we’re tots, but the up and down strokes that work on a tricycle won’t cut it on a road bike. To maximize your pedal efficiency, think circles and clocks, not pistons… Pedal Through the Dead Spots! A pedal stroke has two dead spots, one at the top of the stroke in the 11 to 1 o’clock position (imagine the pedal as a clock), the other at the bottom of the stroke in the 5 to 8 o’clock position. The challenge of correct pedaling is learning how to push and pull through these dead spots and pedal in a circle. (These instructions are for clips and clipless pedals) 5 Steps to Pedal Power 11 to 1 o’clock Push your foot forward across the top of the pedal stroke as if you’re rolling a barrel. 1 to 3 o’clock Push your foot forward and down while dropping your heel slightly below the pedal 3 to 5 o’clock You gain most of your power in this part of the stroke. Fully extend your leg while pushing your foot down. As you approach the 5 o’clock position, your toes will be pointing downward (lower than your heel). 5 to 8 o’clock Pull your foot back as if you’re scraping dog poo off the sole of your shoe. 8 to 11 o’clock This recovery phase can be the most difficult part of the stroke to master. There are times when you will want to pull up on the pedal in this position, such as when you’re pedaling slowly, or pedaling standing out of the saddle. But when pedaling fast you’ll want to relax and de-weight this foot. Your opposite foot is now doing the power part of the stroke. Your job is to not interfere with that by adding dead weight with the recovery foot. Practice Makes Perfect Circles!One-legged pedaling is the best way to practice pedal technique. You can do this indoors on a trainer, or outdoors while riding your bike on a flat, deserted road. Indoors on a trainer: Unclip one foot and rest it on a stool set up beside the pedal. Rotate the other foot practicing the steps above. Do this for 30-60 seconds. Switch legs when you tire. Continue for several minutes. Over time, build up to 3 minutes per leg. Outdoor on the bike: Relax one leg while the other leg pedals. Do this for 30-60 seconds or until your leg is fatigued. Briefly spin easy with both legs, then shift the pedaling to your other leg. Continue for several minutes. Take the time to learn how to pedal correctly and you’ll be a more efficient, faster cyclist.
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Post by Muller on Jan 19, 2016 14:43:34 GMT
Hill Climbs Hill climbs are challenging for all cyclists and can be intimidating for beginners. Hills are where inexperienced riders often get dropped from the pack. But finding the right gear, cadence and technique can turn the most grueling climb into an enjoyable ride. Climbing is all about conserving energy and how you approach a hill will determine how well you climb it. A common mistake is to attack the bottom of the hill too hard, which creates an oxygen deficit partway up (pushing you into anaerobic breathing). By the time you reach the crest of the hill you’ve tanked, which allows more experienced riders, who have conserved their energy on the climb, to surge by you—leaving a gap that you may not be able to close. This leads to a cycle of catch-up, where the dropped rider works hard on the flats to catch the group, only to be dropped again at the next hill. It’s not much fun and it can be exhausting. Gear Selection and CadenceWhen you approach the bottom of a hill select a gear that matches your riding style—70-80 RPM is a good average cadence for climbs but you may want to go higher or lower. When you start the climb get into a smooth pedal rhythm. As you feel your cadence dropping, shift your gears until you find one that you feel you can comfortably hold for the remainder of the climb. Stay SeatedFor long climbs it’s best to stay seated. This conserves energy. When you pedal out of the saddle you use up to 10-12% more energy than when you’re seated. There will be times when you want to stand out of the saddle—to stretch your back, to give your sit bones a break, to push yourself over the crest of hill, to increase your cadence on a long climb, to burst up a short, steep hill, or to work your way around a hairpin curve up a mountain road—but always return to the saddle quickly to conserve your energy. Body PositionScooting back on your saddle during a climb will give you more power on the pedals. Keep your upper body relaxed and quiet, with your chest open and shoulders back and down (not hunched up around your ears). This will help you to breathe more deeply. For a seated climb your hands should be on the top of the handlebar—2 or 3 inches from the stem, or on the brakehoods, where you can easily find your optimum gear. Pedal TechniqueDeveloping good pedal technique is crucial to being a good cyclist. Many riders use a toe-down pedal technique. On climbs you’ll get more power throughout the pedal stroke if you press down through your ankle—keeping your foot in a more neutral position. Pay close attention to your pedal stroke, eliminating any dead spots at the stop and bottom of the stroke. At the bottom of the pedal stroke wipe your foot back, then pull up on the pedal. At the top of the pedal stroke push forward then down. (These last techniques are for clipless pedals only.) Speed and RhythmIt’s important to climb hills at your own speed. A common mistake is to try to keep up with the pack at the bottom of a hill only to find that you’ve reached your limits partway up. This is the fastest way to get dropped. Instead, at the bottom of the hill manage your breathing (breathe deeply) and find your own rhythm. The goal is to make it up the hill and still have plenty of energy to push over the top. Putting it All TogetherAs you start a climb, get into a rhythm, aligning your cadence with your breath. As your cadence drops, gear down until you find a gear that you can comfortably ride in for the rest of the climb. Stay seated and scoot back on your saddle. Pay careful attention to your pedal stroke—pull up from the bottom. When you reach the top part of the climb—the last 20%—start to pick up the pace. As you approach the crest of the hill, push hard to gain more momentum and punch yourself over the top.
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Post by Muller on Jan 21, 2016 12:31:06 GMT
LISTEN TO YOUR BODY TO ACHIEVE YOUR BEST FITNESS LEVEL The best way to achieve a high level of fitness without injuring yourself is to listen to your body. Don't depend on heart rate monitors, fitness trackers or other gadgets. The most sophisticated fitness tracker and injury-avoider is your brain. Training to achieve a high level of fitness requires intense exercise, and most exercise injuries are caused by continuing to exercise intensely when your body tells you to take the day off.A fascinating study from Boston University showed how rats' brains automatically record both time and distance. The researchers had rats run on treadmills with brain implants to measure brain function during exercise (Neuron. November, 2015). The treadmills forced the rats to run in the same place so they were not distracted by different visual effects. Their brains generated electrical impulses that fired off regularly at repeatable specific distances and times. Some repeatable electrical brain waves were recorded every 8 seconds. Some were recorded every 400 centimeters. We can assume that the human brain functions in a similar way. You Don't Need Electronic Devices to Track Exercise You can buy sophisticated gadgets to monitor your:heart rate, variability of heart rate, blood lactic acid, carbon dioxide, sugar, and oxygen levels, speed or cadence, watts (power), number of steps, breaths or arm motions that you take, stride length, and so forth. However, these devices cannot tell you whether you are exercising intensely enough to gain your maximum improvement in ability to take in and use oxygen or to damage your muscles enough for maximum strength gain. Only your brain can tell you whether you are at your maximum, if you need to take off because you are about to injure yourself, or when you need to slow down because you are exhausted. A report from Deakin University in Australia reviewed 56 studies that compared the way that electronic devices and your brain tell you when to slow down or stop exercising (Br J Sports Med. September 29, 2015). Half of these studies showed that the brain and sophisticated machines were equally effective in telling you that you are training too intensely and need to reduce your training. The other half of the studies showed that 85 percent of the time, the brain was a better gauge of overtraining than sophisticated machines. Your Brain Talks to YouYour brain can tell you when you are tired, short of breath and your muscles hurt. All you have to do is to ask: “How do I feel?” Researchers can measure signs of fatigue such as lactate levels, VO2max, heart rate, heart-rate variability, rapid morning heart rate, recovery heart rate, hormone levels (cortisol, testosterone, etc.), red cell counts (hemoglobin, hematocrit, red cell indices), immunity (white blood cells, interleukins, inflammation, muscle damage (creatine kinase, oxidative stress), blood pressure, and much more. But in the real world for athletes and regular exercisers, all you need to do is listen to your body.For example, the test called VO2max measures the major limiting factor to how fast you can move over distance: the maximum amount of oxygen you can take in and use over time. However, you do not need to monitor VO2max with a machine; you can increase V02max just by becoming short of breath in your training. To make muscles stronger, you have to exercise intensely enough to damage muscles so that when they heal, they will become stronger. Stress and RecoverAlmost all competitive athletes use the training principal of "stress and recover." On one day they take an intense workout to damage their muscles. On the next day they feel sore and go less intensely to allow their muscles to heal. Then when their muscles feel fresh again, they take their next very intense workout. Running causes tremendous muscle damage, so runners usually run very fast only two or three times a week, long once a week and have three or four slower recovery days, even if they are working out twice a day. Competitive swimmers are different. The water seems to protect their muscles so they usually try to take one hard and one easy workout every day. Pedaling causes less muscle damage than running, so bicycle racers do some fast riding on most days, and have to learn when to slow down. Rules to Prevent Injuries Following a few simple rules based on listening to your body can help you prevent injuries:
When you are training properly, your muscles will feel sore when you get up almost every morning. If you warm up for a workout and your muscles don't recover and feel fresh after 10 minutes, take the day off or go very slow. It doesn't matter what workout you have planned for that day. If you are training and you feel a soreness or pain in one area that worsens as you continue to exercise, take the day off. You are headed for an injury. Wear-and-tear injuries are usually not symmetrical. One side of your body will feel far more uncomfortable than the other. Wear-and-tear injuries don't just happen, they give you plenty of warning. Stop your intense workouts immediately when your legs start to feel heavy or hurt. You recover faster from workouts by eating food and drinking fluids immediately after you finish a workout and getting off your feet as much as possible. You recover faster by lying instead of sitting and sitting instead of standing.
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Post by niallk on Jan 21, 2016 20:40:14 GMT
That last line I heard before from the legend himself, Sean Kelly. Quote: "Why stand when you can sit and why sit if you can lie down". If it's good enough for the King........
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Post by Shay on Jan 29, 2016 19:20:54 GMT
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Post by TimmyC on Feb 10, 2016 14:17:35 GMT
Okay folks I'm going to throw my tuppence haypenny worth in here. There is a lot of good info on this thread to help people train and cycle better but one area I think we're not putting into practice is the WARMUP period! Mostly we leave the pharmacy as if there's a fire raging behind us, huffing and puffing out the road until we eventually get warmed up. It's not too bad out the Ballygarvan road as it's mostly flat but when we head out through carrigaline and on to ballyfeard hill it's really tough! It's possibly okay if you've cycled to the pharmacy but for a lot of us we just fall out of bed, eat breakfast and drive to the pharmacy and then expect to easily fly out the road!! I think we should have some kind of WARMUP period as in even 10 minutes or 10 km. What do people think? Any feed back or comments would be helpful.
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Post by Michael McCann on Feb 10, 2016 14:40:51 GMT
I fully agree - particularly if we go via Ballyfeard with its climb out of Carrigaline.
One of the problems in the winter is that it is cold starting out so people tend to go a bit faster to warm up.
Maybe we should go down the Crosshaven road for a while first if we are going that way.
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Post by TimmyC on Feb 10, 2016 15:49:30 GMT
I understand what your saying Micheal but it's not so much the direction we go in its more the INTENSITY of which we start off at. You're only talking backing off a notch or two just to give the body a chance to warmup.
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Post by Shay on Feb 10, 2016 16:31:07 GMT
Good observation Timmy. It was very much in evidence last Sunday as the orange plus took on Kilmoney hill. No matter the direction or the time of year the 1st 10k should always be at a "light leg" pace where the group are just spinning out. Something we should remind ourselves before each group spin over the coming months.
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Post by FinbarrL on Feb 10, 2016 16:41:09 GMT
I agree entirely. I had intended trying orange plus last weekend but when I heard the route I opted out. Slower pace for the first 5/10 k allows geriatrics like me to get the blood flowing.
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Post by niallk on Feb 10, 2016 16:41:21 GMT
Don't they say that that's the difference between pros and amateurs? A pro ride starts slow and finishes fast. Amateurs start fast and finish slow!!
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Post by Muller on Feb 10, 2016 18:12:17 GMT
Okay folks I'm going to throw my tuppence haypenny worth in here. There is a lot of good info on this thread to help people train and cycle better but one area I think we're not putting into practice is the WARMUP period! Mostly we leave the pharmacy as if there's a fire raging behind us, huffing and puffing out the road until we eventually get warmed up. It's not too bad out the Ballygarvan road as it's mostly flat but when we head out through carrigaline and on to ballyfeard hill it's really tough! It's possibly okay if you've cycled to the pharmacy but for a lot of us we just fall out of bed, eat breakfast and drive to the pharmacy and then expect to easily fly out the road!! I think we should have some kind of WARMUP period as in even 10 minutes or 10 km. What do people think? Any feed back or comments would be helpful. Valid point Timmy, but personally I think the lack of group spin "knowledge, skills and etiquette" is a bigger issue.
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Post by Michael McCann on Feb 10, 2016 18:13:39 GMT
I understand what your saying Micheal but it's not so much the direction we go in its more the INTENSITY of which we start off at. You're only talking backing off a notch or two just to give the body a chance to warmup. Timmy, I think the hill also makes a difference. As you said yourself it's not as bad when we go out the Ballygarvan Road because it is flatter.
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Post by TimmyC on Feb 10, 2016 18:39:37 GMT
I agree Noel that knowledge, skills and etiquette are very important and should be learned and practiced on every spin. Experienced cyclists are good to learn from for this. But going back to my original post warm up is important also and every workout starts with one! So we should be no different. Looking at the feedback here and from talking to others on our cycles this is an important issue for a lot of people and myself included as I find I am pushing very hard at the start of some spins. I think Shay you are correct in saying that this warm up period should be practiced throughout the season. As for hills out of carrigaline Micheal, I would be quite happy going up hill at a slow pace to just warm up.
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Post by MurphNo1 on Feb 10, 2016 21:50:12 GMT
All very valid points indeed. But when there are people who will tear along the road from the pharmacy what can you do only try to keep on their wheel. No matter how many posts are on a thread like this it won't stop the problem. I suppose a road captain could dictate the pace from the front for the first 10 to 15 mins. then let a roll up system commence after the 'warm up"
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Post by TimmyC on Feb 10, 2016 22:37:05 GMT
All very valid points indeed. But when there are people who will tear along the road from the pharmacy what can you do only try to keep on their wheel. No matter how many posts are on a thread like this it won't stop the problem. I suppose a road captain could dictate the pace from the front for the first 10 to 15 mins. then let a roll up system commence after the 'warm up" Yes Noel there are people who will tear along but my guess is they may not know there going that fast and also they may think if there not going that fast that there holding up the group ! I suppose this is where knowledge,skills and etiquette come in! I think it's probably up to people to call notch if their feeling the pinch for the first few kms. A road captain would be of help here also. Anyway it's out in the open now and there's been good feedback so we'll try it out in the next few spins and see will anything stick!
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Post by Michael McCann on Feb 16, 2016 13:19:00 GMT
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Post by Muller on Feb 16, 2016 14:18:33 GMT
Sean Kelly’s golden rules for those preparing for sportives Sean Kelly warns against "overdoing it" and says there is no need for riders preparing for sportives to head for hills to work on their climbing ; his advice is to leave the climbs alone Irish cycling legend Sean Kelly has offered up some golden pieces of advice to sportive riders aiming to tackle big events this year.With Cycling Ireland’s membership at an all-time high and many leisure events selling out in advance, Kelly believes for riders to improve they must not take a long winter break.And, in advice that may surprise; he says those preparing for sportives should not be so keen to ride big climbs when training for their events. “If you cut off training for four or five months, it’s so difficult to get back to the level you were at in the summer,” said Kelly. While the weather in winter (and sometimes in spring, summer and autumn) can make it difficult to get out, Kelly says getting in at least one weekly ride all year is the key, and says to top it off with turbo training or spin classes. It’s the best advice anyone can give you. “The message is simple, keep on doing something; be it spinning classes, something on the turbo and then maybe just do something (on the road) at the weekend as well. “Obviously work and the weather can make that hard, but if you can get out once on the weekend and do a bike ride during the winter it will really stand to you. “I think a lot of people make the mistake where they just finish cycling after the last sportive of the year – the Tour of Waterford, or the Rebel Tour in Cork or whatever. “They just stop after it and take out their bikes again in March. That is not a good thing to do.” He also said people need not be intimidated by the length of some events, or indeed a difficult route on paper.“People think that because there’s hills in the sportives, they seem to think they’ve to train on hills,” he explained. Even if they’ve taken a few months off in the winter, they get back on the bike a week or two and they start going up these huge hills. That’s something you don’t have to do. “Instead, do a 2-hour basic spin, then a 2 and a half hour spin, then 3 hours, and if you can do it on a flat, maybe undulating road, that’s ok
“First of all, you start a build-up of your basic fitness and basic distance, which means ‘x’ numbers of hours and " slowly" build it up. “You can do the climbs 3 or 4 weeks before the event, not months before it,” but added riding any climbs at all in training is optional.
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Post by Muller on Feb 18, 2016 16:37:47 GMT
HOW TO KEEP YOUR MAXIMUM HEART RATE UP AS YOU AGE Your maximum heart rate is the fastest your heart can beat and still pump blood effectively through your body. As you age, your maximum heart rate drops. This means that your heart is weaker and more susceptible to damage, and you can't exercise as fast over distance as you could when you were younger. How fast you can run, cycle, ski or swim over distance is limited by the time that it takes to move oxygen into your muscles. Your heart pumps oxygen-rich blood to your muscles, so the faster your heart can beat, the more blood it can pump to your muscles and the faster you can move. Exercise physiologists use your maximum heart rate to determine your level of fitness and guide the intensity of training. A recent study from Ball State University in Indiana shows that exercising as you age slows down the loss of maximum heart rate. Keeping your maximum heart rate up means that your heart is stronger, which allows you to exercise faster and longer. Exercising as you age can also prolong your life and help prevent heart attacks, cancers, strokes, diabetes, being overweight and more.The Study: Nearly 650 healthy men and women, ages 18-80, not taking any heart-rate-altering medications, completed two treadmill all-out efforts at least one year apart. The older participants had lower average maximum heart rates, but those who were most fit and had the highest values had the least drop in their maximum heart rates over the year " regardless of age".How to Increase your Maximum Heart RateThe standard Maximum Heart Rate Formula (220 - Age) is based on averages and is "not accurate". You can beat these averages if you exercise effectively. Your actual maximum heart rate depends more on the strength of your legs than it does on the strength of your heart. When you contract your leg muscles, they squeeze against the blood vessels near them to pump blood from your leg veins toward your heart. When your leg muscle relax, your leg veins fill with blood. When you exercise, your leg muscles pump increased amounts of blood toward your heart. This increased volume of blood fills the heart, which causes your heart to beat faster and stronger. This is called the Bainbridge reflex. The stronger your legs are, the more blood they can pump back to your heart, which causes your heart to beat faster. Maximum heart rate formulae can be used to help you plan and monitor your exercise program, but they should not be interpreted as absolute limits or goals. If you want to train to become faster by increasing your maximum heart rate, you should follow a program based on "stress and recover." To increase your maximum heart rate, you need to become short of breath at some time during your exercise. However, when you exercise at high intensity, you damage muscles and have to allow time for them to "recover". If you don't allow muscles to recover, you can become injured and can develop an overuse syndrome in which you are exhausted and won't be able to exercise at all. Recommendations All healthy people should use some variation of a stress-and-recover exercise program, in which they damage their muscles by going a little harder and faster on one day, then feel soreness in their muscles and go much slower on the next day. When their muscles feel fresh again, they can take another intense workout. For example, a runner may warm up by going slowly and then run a little faster for 50 strides, then slow down until he recovers his breath and his muscles feel fresh, and then alternate the faster and slower runs until his legs start to feel heavy or hurt. On the next day, his muscles should feel sore and he either takes the day off or runs very slowly. He should try to set up a program in which he goes faster on one day and much slower on the next. A hard day means getting short of breath and feeling some burning in your muscles. An easy day means that you do not become short of breath and should not feel muscle soreness as you continue to exercise. If your legs feel heavy after you warm up, take a day off from exercising.You don't need to know your maximum heart rate. You don't need to use a maximum heart rate formula to govern your training. You don't need a heart rate monitor. All training should be governed by how you feel. Never train intensely when your muscles feel worse as you continue to exercise. Caution: All vigorous exercisers must learn when to back off of training because not allowing enough time to recover from hard exercise can damage your heart muscle as well as your skeletal muscles.
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Post by Muller on Feb 25, 2016 16:37:54 GMT
HOW MUCH SHOULD YOU TRAIN? How much should you train? The answer: Probably not as much as you think. What should be your training goal? “An athlete should do the least amount of properly timed, specific training that brings about continual improvement.” (emphasis added) Improvement comes from asking your body to do more than it is used to doing. Your body thinks, “Hey, I can’t do this.” If you’ve given your body a moderate dose of overload and allow your body time to recover, then it thinks, “I’ve got a bit of a break so I can get stronger and do what you want.” Important point: your body (and your performance) only improves if you give your body time to recover.Your body won’t increase contractile force, repair muscle damage or create new mitochondria (where fat is metabolized to produce energy for endurance) if you don’t allow it to recover. What happens if you ask too much?You could develop an overuse injury from muscles and/or connective tissues that aren’t strong enough to handle the overload. Or you could get sick. Or you could ask your body to do so much that it can’t compensate quickly and get fitter. This is called overreaching, and you might not ride as well for a week or so, after which your body can return to where it was and then get stronger. But overreaching can easily develop into overtraining, from which it could take you weeks or even months to recover. How do you know if you’re overtraining?The key indicator is declining performance. Everybody has an off day. But if you’re not riding as fast or climbing as well, for example, watch out! The other key indicator is your mood. We all have a day here and there when we blow off a workout or just don't feel like riding. But if you think, “I really don’t want to train, or ride!” for several days, conider yourself warned. Too often, a roadie responds to either of these key indicators by forcing himself or herself to get out there and ride – which is exactly the wrong response! If performance drops significantly and/or you aren’t excited about riding, take a few days off before you fall into overtraining. (You may have heard that these, too, are indicators of overtraining: a change in morning heart rate, or a change in body weight, or a change in how fast your heart rate drops after a hard effort. However, research shows that there is little correlation between any of these and overtraining.) Balancing overload and recovery in your trainingSince you need to overload your body in order to improve, how do you manage your training so that you don’t ask too much of it and do, in fact, improve? Remember the 80 - 20 RuleAccording to the Pareto Principle, 80% of the benefit comes from the first 20% of the effort. Doing more training only brings marginal gains and risks the problems described above. More recovery brings greater gainsBrent Bookwalter, who rides for BMC, advises that if you have a choice between an extra 20 minutes of riding or spending that time recovering, do the recovery. (More training only brings marginal gains; however, more recovery brings greater gains.Change only one overload at a timeYou can demand more of your body in five different ways: 1. Volume: If you’ve been averaging four hours a week of riding this winter, then to continue to improve you need to ride more. 2. Duration: If your longest rides this winter have been 90 minutes, then to continue to improve you need to ride longer. 3. Frequency: In general, you need to ride three times a week to maintain fitness and at least four times a week to improve. If you’ve been averaging three days a week then you need to add another day. 4. Modality: If you’ve been doing strength training three times a week and then switch to riding (only), just changing the mode overloads your body. Although you’re using many of the same muscles riding, the movement patterns are different than in the gym. 5. Intensity: Conversational endurance rides are the foundation of all training. However, if this is all you’ve been doing, then you need to include some intensity in your training. Change only one of these variables at a time to avoid overreaching and overtraining. Change slowly. For example, only increase your volume by 10% or so a week. Use intensity training effectivelyIntensity is like prescription medicine. Taken in the right amount, you improve. Not enough and you don’t get better. Too much and you get worse. Take the wrong medicine and something different may happen to your body! Polarize your ridingTop endurance riders spend about 75% of their training time riding at low intensity, 15 – 20% above lactate threshold and not much time in between. Low intensity means an easy conversational pace. High intensity means so hard you’re about to barf. Target your hard riding Most amateurs tend to ride at about the same intensity or spend too much time doing very hard riding or add intensity rides without reducing endurance riding. Because intensity riding increases the total overload on your body a lot, just adding it to your regimen risks overreaching. Instead, cut back on total volume at the same time as you add intensity. Each system responds to different types of training. To complicate matters further, your legs have three different types of muscle fibers:1. Slow-twitch (low power, great endurance) 2. Fast-twitch IIb (moderate power and endurance) 3. Fast-twitch IIa (high power and shorter endurance) (“Slow” and “Fast” refer to how fast the muscle fibers fire, not how fast your cadence is.) The mix of fiber types is determined genetically and varies by individual. Although you can’t change the mix of types, you can focus your training on a specific type, depending on your goals.
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