JANUARY TRAINING HINTS

If you have a place in the Etape du Tour – well done! There is a great challenge ahead!

You may be a beginner or a seasoned cyclist – you may be a racer or a cycle tourist – You may have won the tour de France or be a leading cycle journalist - whoever you are – there is one thing for certain – you will need to train!

If you have had a few cycling successes you may not feel that training is necessary. One Tour de France rider of the past entered the Etape, and after failing to finish said that he had forgotten how hard mountains were. This could only mean that he had not trained!

If you are a cycle tourist used to long rides and mountains you are off to a good start. You will know what hills and mountains are about, and how to tackle distance. If you are a club rider you will be used to riding at speed over a good distance with other riders, and you will know about slip streaming. If you are a beginner – start from here!

Training

Training involves increasing your distance, strengthening your legs, improving your endurance, increasing your cardio-vascular fitness – and simply riding fast!

Later on you will improve your bike handling skills, improve your group riding technique and learn to pace yourself.

Winter Training

Winter training depends on conditions. On a fine day, winter sunshine makes riding a delight. Joining a club ride is excellent training, especially if it is paced at a speed which pushes you a bit but is not so fast that it is discouraging.

Do build your distance and effort level up by stages. If you have not ridden much recently, a 20 mile ride at a comfortable level is a good start, building up to 50 miles as the weeks go by. Don’t forget the tea stops!

Hills

You may have noticed that this year’s route is a little mountainous. Attacking a few hills is very beneficial in increasing strength and cardio vascular fitness, though if the temperature is low, keep the work rate down – breathing cold air too fast may cause your body core temperature to plummet, putting your health at risk.

Turbo Trainers

People have proved to me beyond doubt that a turbo trainer is very effective in getting you fit – and are particularly useful when the evenings are dark.

Calibrate yourself!

You may like to print off a copy of the training diary on this web site, to record your training activities. It is good to see a steady progression in speed, distance and fitness. You may like to use the method on this web site to record your fitness every few weeks – scroll the menu down to training and click on Fitness and Fitness Calc.

Enjoy Your Training!