TRAINING HINTS FOR FEBRUARY

TRAINING HINTS FOR FEBRUARY

Why Train?

The idea of training used to be a mystery to me. I'd do a long ride, and feel exhaused. Less fit! So how does training work then?

Training is the process of pushing yourself that bit further each time. The wonderful thing about the human body is that it adapts to this, though not at the time! Between training sessions, complex processes are in operation, strengthening your muscles, improving your blood supply, strengthening your heart and improving your lung function. The bonus is that you need to eat quite well during the recovery phase to build yourself up!

If you are training for an event such as the Etape, this should involve steady, week by week progress, gradually building yourself up, rather than a last minute panic!

Training should be specific. Ideally it should mimic the event.

How often do you need to train?

The accepted Sports Science philosophy is:

Hard training once a week maintains your fitness level.
Training twice a week will improve your performance.
Training three times a week will benefit your performance further.
Beyond this level, there is a danger of over training, though four sessions a week may be beneficial.
Personally, I find this reassuring as it leaves time for real life!

Why not train every day? Apart for the fact that this would leave little time for anything else, it is probably counterproductive, as it leaves no recovery time.

Some people train six times a week, with one rest day. This may pay dividends, but if you lead a busy working, social and home life time is scarce, and you will want to economise on time spent training. It is also worth remembering that time spent training later in the year tends to have more effect than excessive early season training.

Long Rides

As this year's event is exceptionally long, a good plan is to build up the ride length sooner in the season than you would normally. This would involves doing a ride of at least 60 miles in February, with 75 miles being good target. As day length is limited in February and weather is poor (in the Northern hemisphere!) rides of this length may not be possible though.

I tend to divide long rides into two types: Easy (level 1) rides, punctuated with coffee stops, lunch stops and tea stops, and level 2 rides. In a level 2 ride you will be pushing yourself at a pleasant but fast level, eating the miles, and having fewer stops. You will be riding at a level which you are able to maintain for a long period. This may be 12 - 15mph, perhaps 17mph if you've reached a good fitness level, or around 20mph for the experts. I like to alternate between level 1 and level 2 rides, as level 1 rides are more sociable.

Please take careful note of the road conditions. You may be saved from injury after falling off on ice by a helmet and padded clothing (as one etapper was recently), though this is not guaranteed. The score in Oxfordshire this year (though not for Etappers) is three broken bones of various types, mainly (though not exclusively) on cycle paths! My personal view is if there is ice about, you may be better off training indoors, as an injury would not advance your training much. Having said that, many riders negociate icy rodes with no significanty damage!

Events

It is worth riding an Audaxes and similar events as part of your training. Not only will you have the chance to chat to others, but there is a chance to practice group riding, and explore interesting routes in interesting areas. February is a good time to organise the callendar of rides you would like to do. There is a list of possiblities in the events section below. If you are riding an event and you let me know (Ron@Etape.org,uk) , I may be able to add it to the list. You then stand a better chance of meeting other etappers along the way!

Indoor Training

How boring I used to think! Why sit indoors when there is the greater outdoors? When the evenings are dark and the roads icy, there are several ways to make indoor training interesting. I've been investigating some of them.

Spinning: This involves the spinning "class" sitting on exercise bikes instructed by a tutor. She will take you through a range of exercises such as sprinting and hill climbing, simulated by changing the resistance setting on the exercise bike. It is quite good fun. I tried it yesterday for the first time! Most gyms organise spinning classes.
Videos: Steve swears by Videos produces by www.spinervals.com and claims that they are enjoyable to use and have increased his fitness on the bike. You play the video while riding your turbo trainer, and are instructed to perform a range of training sequences.
The gym: I've been using exercise bikes in the gym to supplement on road riding in the winter. It has made a very measueable difference.
Turbo trainers: You mount your road bike on one of these devices, and it enables you to train on the spot indoors. They range in sophistication and price from simple models for about £60, through intermediate models for £200 up to high tech versions for £300 or £400. The mid range ones have handlebar mounted gadgets attached for monitoring your performance, and maybe setting resistance levels, while the top of the range models may be linked to a computer to monitor and record your data, and even run computer game style simulated rides linked to your riding.

The benefits of indoor training are for boosting your cardio vascular system, and muscle strength for climbing those mountains. It probably has less value for endurance training - unless you are watching a good, extremely long film at the same time!

Calibrate yourself!

Here are two effective ways to measuring your progress.

On The Road

The first is useful for judging monitoring your fitness on the road - and encouraging yourself as you improve!

Speed/ Distance Curve

Most competitors will find that if they plot a graph of the average speed of a ride against its length, it will look something like the above. As you become fitter, your speed over both short and long distances will rise.

It is worth keeping a diary of your average speeds and distances, then plotting them on a similar graph. You will then be able to encourage yourself by seeing how you improve. You will also be able to gauge what type of training benefits your long distance performance. For example, a week’s cycling holiday in Mallorca may raise your speed over all distances by a few miles per hour!

The method is very useful if you sometimes only have time for a quick 5 miles, and at other times manage to fit in an Audax.It is also very useful in gauging how far you have to go to reach the required standard. It is worth annotating the points on the graph "H" for hilly, "M" for mountainous and "P" if you are riding in a peloton (group), as that makes the graph more intelligible.

Some people who ride an exceptionally high mileage per week (250 – 300 miles/week) find that their speed is similar for all distances. Most of us are to busy to even attempt this!

Fitness levels will vary greatly at this time of year. Some riders will have trained through the winter, and could make a good showing of the Etape tomorrow. Others will have crawled out of hibernation in January, and are just beginning to get the miles up. If you have not completed a 50 mile ride yet this year, get busy!

In the Gym

It is fairly easy to monitor your fitness in the gym using this fitness calculator (click here!) . If you have used it before, please note that the instructions have been changed slightly to give better results.

Training Partners

Many people like to do their early season training alone, to build up their fitness at their own speed. Later in the year club rides are good. If you are new to the sport, it may be better to join a group such as the CTC initially, rather than to be left in the dust by the local racing club, which is very discouraging. When you reach your peak fitness, you may be able to leave them in the dust!

If your friends are slow cyclists and you want to get fit, you may want to resort to tactics such as racing to the tops of the hills and waiting, or even riding an old tourer with laden panniers while they are on their fast bikes! I suppose a mountain bike with knobby tyres would be the ultimate in hard work – but that’s maybe going too far!

Enjoy!

Above all, don’t be a slave to your training. Vary it and enjoy!