"Everyone can go fast; here are the secrets to winning"
1. Don’t let your body go to waste during the off-season. Even if you spend some time off the bike, stay active and cross-train.
2. The off-season doesn’t mean you have to stay off the bike. What you need is a break from the structured training you do during the race season.
3. Before you start training for the new year, assess your abilities: are you a great bike handler? Weak climber? Need better technique, etc.? Be honest.
4. The weaknesses are the things that are holding you back. Most of your training should focus on turning those faults into strengths.
5. Now develop a training plan: decide the duration of the base period, build cycle, and the races or the block of the year that you would like to peak for.
6. Plan to spend a good two months building a solid base. This is done through long duration, low-intensity riding. Relax and enjoy the scenery.
7. If you carried a decent level of fitness through the off-season and cycled enough to maintain muscle memory, the base period can be cut in half.
8. During the base period you will increase training volume by adding training duration and frequency; not through high-heart-rate intensity.
9. The base period gradually steps the body up in toughness so it can handle the pain and cellular wear and tear of the intensity to come later.
10. After base, you begin replacing endurance riding with threshold work. Start riding shorter and shorter durations at or above 80 percent max heart rate.
11. This block of training is called the build period, which also lasts for up to two months. Continue to gradually replace riding duration with harder riding.
12. When you are comfortable with a level of fitness, take a rest week of low-intensity riding. Then step it up to the next level of endurance or intensity.
13. The idea of a training block is to improve fitness, rest, improve fitness again, rest, push fitness up again, rest, and so on.
14. The more efficiently you cycle, the greater the reserve you will have to ride full out and to respond to attacks. Cycling efficiency is a mental game.
15. Whenever you are on the bike, think of making the most of your energy: pedal smoother, limit upper body movement and match breathing to the cycling tempo.
16. Tempo is the point at which you can comfortably hold maximum cycling speed for hours on end. Riders with a better threshold can hold a higher tempo.
17. Threshold is the level of cycling intensity that is right below the point where lactic acid builds up faster than the body can handle.
18. Your threshold is approximately 85 percent of your maximum heart rate. At around 90 percent maximum, you will begin to feel the burn of lactic acid.
19. This lactic acid burn is what limits you from riding faster. Everyone has the same limiter, and anyone has an even chance of overcoming it.
20. You improve your lactic threshold (LT) by training to elevate the heart rate before you begin to feel the burn. It is done through anaerobic cycling.
21. If you’ve done a test to determine lactic threshold heart rate (LT), check it against how hard you’re breathing and how your legs feel when riding hard.
22. Monitor your breathing and how heavy your legs feel when holding a fast tempo. Short spurts don’t count; it has to be consistent riding.
23. When your breathing becomes labored and you begin to feel a burning tightness in the legs, this is the point when lactic acid is beginning to pool.
24. The goal of the build period is to elevate LT leading up to the summer. Because you built a solid base, your body will easily handle this stress.
25. During build, improve cycling speed by riding above your threshold. Endurance rides will slowly be replaced with shorter intensity rides.
26. When you taper to a peak, replace the R&R break with a reduced weekly workload. Cycling frequency, duration and intensity combine to form workload.
27. During a peak, ride frequently, but for shorter durations and at higher intensity. You can only do this for a few weeks before losing endurance.
28. If the races you’re peaking for are two hours or longer, you will be able to carry a high level of endurance through the low-duration training period.
29. It’s best to nail down training cycles by joining up with a group that does organized training rides. Study and learn from other like-minded people.
30. When overcoming limiters, use training that most closely replicates the situation you are weakest in during a race. Eliminate those shortcomings.
31. It takes several days to fully benefit from a given workout. Training hard seven days prior to an event will produce no additional fitness.
32. After time off, don’t hastily train to “catch back up.” Use a base schedule routine and steady, systematic cycling to build up to the old you.
33. Speed and anaerobic fitness start declining in three days of non-activity. Endurance can be maintained with an endurance ride every one to two weeks.
34. It takes over a week of missed workouts for a trained cyclist to lose measurable fitness. If you feel tired, it’s okay to skip an endurance ride.
35. Don’t forgo maintaining good pedaling technique and bike handling skills. Allocate one ride a week to becoming a more efficient, energy-saving cyclist.
36. Master riders need to incorporate frequent bike handling sessions in their weekly regimen. Reflexes dull faster the older you get.
37. Bike handling is the most fun to practice. Practice wheelies, bunnyhopping, jumping, and trick riding. Wear knee and elbow pads and go have a good time.
38. Practice starts to find the best gear, crank angle and pedal tilt that allows the quickest lock-in. Rehearse a few starts during reflex training.
39. After base, seasoned master riders benefit more by training for shorter durations at or above LT. Old guys reap the most bang for the buck this way.
40. This is key for master performance: ride harder when you ride; rest harder when you rest. Rest can be done on or off the bike.
41. Some riders need to recover from intense cycling with an off-bike day. Still be active—work on the yard or take a walk with your wife.
42. Don’t do more than three high-intensity rides per week. The other days are devoted to recovery, aerobic fitness maintenance
and skill development.
43. When doing short, high-intensity intervals, it’s more beneficial to do fewer of them at an all-out effort than more at a less than anaerobic effort.
44. Don’t stick to a scheduled, super intense workout if you feel down and your body is reacting poorly to stress. Take the day off or do an easy ride.
45. During the season, you should be doing the least amount of the most effective training possible. If you’re riding around with no purpose, stop!
46. Make sure you have a specific reason for each ride. It should either be a recovery, endurance, tempo, interval, breakthrough or skill ride.
47. This time of the year, focus harder on recovery. If you’re not ready to work harder on scheduled hard days, you will soon hit a fitness plateau.
48. Include your job in the yearly plan. If work takes extreme physical labor, you are stressing your heart. Schedule riding around the work load.
49. Your heart doesn’t know the difference between running, skiing, swimming, working, and so on. Anything that loads the cardiovascular system is good.
50. The body loses a feel for pedaling and bike handling. If your job is tough on the body, focus on more, but shorter periods of intense cycling.
51. Give your regimen time to work. Stick to the original training plan so you develop concrete results and can tell if the routine works or not.
52. Relax. The more intently you ride, the more natural it is to hold onto the bars harder and to tense your shoulders. It wears you out and slows you down.
53. When you clamp down on the bar, it throws off bike handling. Loosen up and let the bike move around beneath you. All you are is the motor and auto pilot.
54. Stay loose, rlax and let the bike float over ruts and rocks. When you tense up, the rigidness transfers straight into the suspension.
55. When you climb, relax your upper body and focus your full effort into smooth leg movement. Bouncing around and jerking on the bar wastes energy.
56. Concentrate on breathing out. The more air you exhale, the more air you will inhale to sufficiently fuel the metabolic process.
57. Don’t hold your breath when you climb. As riders tense up, they also hold their breath. Breathe consistently when climbing.
58. The best way to fill your lungs is to match your breathing rhythm to your pedaling cadence and the slight bobbing motion of your head.
59. Create a metronome in your mind. Think a consistent “bam,” “bam,” “bam,” tempo in your mind and match pedaling and breathing to it.
60. It’s also common to lose pedaling efficiency when the pace goes up. Instead of clicking up, shift down and go faster through tempo instead of pounding.
61. For 15 seconds, count the number of times your right knee hits top. Multiply by four. That is your pedaling cadence.Learn the feel of 60, 80 and 100 rpm.
62. Always work on pedaling efficiency. Keep track of your spin and get a natural feel for what an 80 rpm cadence feels like. Always try to spin at 80.
63. Use your gears. There is nothing wrong with going right into the granny when you hit steep hills. Don’t worry about others; you’re saving energy.
64. Bettering leg speed and refining cadence should be a year-long commitment. The next time you ride, click down a gear and spin more. Make it a habit.
65. Look down the trail. When you know what’s coming up, it’s possible to pick smoother lines over faster, harder dirt. Keep those eyes moving up the trail.
66. Follow the same warmup for anaerobic training as for a race. When the body learns the routine, it knows that it’s supposed to follow with all-out riding.
67. Have a start plan. Consider how important the race is, how the training week went, and how you felt during warmup. Will you start fast or hang back?
68. Size up the competition. Assess who you’re up against. Key in on the rider or the group that you want to be with early in the race or training ride.
69. Don’t go out too hard. It’s almost always best to sit behind the leaders and wait for the early race aggression to die down before making your move.
70. There are those times when you feel so good and are way better than the competition. If you attack off the start, give it a full effort so it sticks.
71. If an attack doesn’t succeed, you just burned a lot of energy that you will never get back. You will be riding in arrears, struggling to keep up.
72. Your energy is like a box of matches. Every time you make a hard effort, you strike a match or two. When you are out of matches, you are out of energy.
73. If you’re an average climber, move to the front heading up to a climb. Force the climbers to use a poor line and to burn matches as they pass.
74. Likewise, if you’re an average descender, move to the front before a downhill. It’s your turn to force the descenders off onto a poor line.
75. Before passing, look ahead and be certain that there’s ample room and a better-than-good chance it will stick. Otherwise, you’ll waste lots of matches.
76. Check for signs of weakness. If a rider is rocking all over the bike and breathing hard enough for you to hear, it’s your signal to attack.
77. Unless you can do it discreetly, avoid looking back. If you are getting caught and look behind, it tells him that you are weak and worried.
78. In amateur races with combined starts, quickly link up with riders from a faster group. It immediately distances you from the riders you have to beat.
79. If a rider is catching you, just step it up. The rider could be in another class, so use him to drive you further away from the people in your group.
80. When you pass, use an all-out effort that puts distance between you and the other rider. It psyches you up and psyches the competitor down.
81. Never relax as you crest a hill. Shift up immediately to ease the transition from a heavy to light pedal load while making time on other riders.
82. Use harder gears with more leg force at altitude. Since there’s less air, it’s harder for the body to process enough oxygen for high aerobic efforts.
83. Sit down more on an full-suspension rig. When other riders tense and back off over bumps, you should stay seated, pedal through and gain time.
84. After a training ride or race, think back and study where the race was won or lost, and where you were weak. Tweak training to erase those weaknesses.
85. Use the lines that carry the most speed through downhill corners. It costs too much time to recover from a blown turn. Consistent descending is fastest.
86. If you have great bike handling skills, don’t ride at the limit while descending during a training ride. Save the all-out gamble for the races.
87. Occasionally ride with a different group; do a long, slow distance (LSD) ride all by yourself; or cruise the bike path. It helps keep you fresh.
88. Old-school riders who still glance back at the cogset could save time by simply looking at the shifter indicator. It works just fine.
89. Use a lightweight CamelBak race pack. You won’t have to worry about fumbling with a bottle while trying to make power or to catch your breath.
90. The best way to use a CamelBak is to pop the hose in your mouth on descents. Stay hydrated on descents so you can focus a full effort up climbs.
91. After a race, measure the amount of liquid left in the CamelBak bladder. A pint of water weighs one pound, and it’s foolish to carry more than you need.
92. Before the start, find out how many and where the water stations are. Weigh that information to decide how much water you need to take with you.
93. Don’t over-hydrate ten minutes before a race. Maintain a fluid equilibrium during the week and show up on the line as light as possible.
94. Is eyewear getting banged off your face? Put on a helmet and check for interference between the glass ear stems and the helmet straps/skull lock.
95. If you need to push the glasses back on your face or adjust the helmet while riding, you are wasting precious seconds. Get gear that fits!
96. Run a Lizard Skins chainstay pad. When the bike is quieter, the suspension “works better” on descents and it keeps you more psyched about going fast.
97. Jot down a race plan. List drive time, parking and registration duration, warmup length and the time you need to head to the start.
98. If you flat or mechanical during a training ride, make the repair at race speed and get right back to hard riding. Train to better handle a race mishap.
99. Race repair tools and materials should be carried in the jersey pocket. All you need is one tube, a Kwik Fill, and a very basic mini tool.
100. Never go far without issues of MBA or a training book. When waiting in a jury duty or bank line, read to boost your cycling and training knowledge.
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