When riding becomes training

When riding becomes training

Most people start riding a bike purely for pleasure and the notion of serious training isn’t a consideration. But as fitness improves and a casual interest quickly grows into an obsession there comes a certain point where many cyclists contemplate new challenges: sportives, Gran Fondo, a club ‘10’ or even a road race. That tipping point is where ‘riding’ becomes ‘training’.

For those new to endurance sport, planning training can be baffling. These days there is a wealth of information and plenty of advice online, but many people find training theory and sports science jargon pretty impenetrable. In this introduction to training the aim is to provide the beginner with some simple pointers towards planning effective training and these ideas will be developed in future articles with more in-depth discussion of specific topics.

Planning your training need not be complicated
The best ideas are often the simplest and this is true for training, the difficult part is fitting in everything you need to do. You may have read about ‘periodisation’ and ‘periodised plans’ or heard cyclists discussing ‘microcycles’ and ‘training blocks’. This is merely jargon describing often, very simple principles.

A periodised plan in its most basic form divides training and competition into discreet periods: preparation, competition and recovery. Each period has a key objective and the aim is to optimise the cyclist’s gains in fitness and subsequent performance. To this end periodisation can take different forms such as ‘wave’, ‘block’ or even ‘reverse’ periodisation. Â These will be explained in later articles, but for the beginner, the key is to start with some sort of plan, however basic that might be.

Tip 1: Use a calendar or spreadsheet (don’t rush to online software just yet) to draw-up a plan working back from your target event. This will form your overall perdiodised plan and will help you to see at a glance where you have come from and what you will need to do. It will also reduce the risk that you’ll miss including vital elements of your training.

Ask yourself what a superior performance ‘looks like’?
This can be some very simple questions, such as, how long is the event I want to train for? What speed will I need to maintain? What technical skills might I need to have? Is this a power/anaerobic based sport (e.g. track sprinting) or is it endurance/aerobic focussed (e.g. Gran Fondo)?
This basic information is very important for devising a plan as it will give you an indication of all the things you will need to include. For example, Cross-country MTB is highly technical so a significant proportion of training will be needed to master techniques that will help you negotiate rock gardens or descend at speed. On the other hand, if you are riding sportives then building endurance and improving your ability to metabolise fat will be a greater priority

Tip 2: Make a note of what you need to work on and set it down in your plan.

Scheduling training
This generally means avoiding heavy anaerobic activities (extended sprints) on days where the aerobic demand is high (long climbing repeats). A simple approach over a short period of training (a microcycle) is to complete short duration powerful activities on the first days and then move to longer duration endurance activities in the final days. The figure below illustrates this approach which you will find effective in helping you to complete training on successive days. Novices may also find that in the early stages of training it is better to complete two days of training followed by a day of rest, or even one day on and one day off training.