Cycling Training

Cycling Training

Managing your training, preparing your outings, managing your fitness level, listening to your body, whether in cycling or running, this is called preparation and only has advantages afterwards.

INTRODUCTION :

Cycling, the sport of kings with a little queen. If there is a demanding sport, it is cycling.
Either you love cycling with a passion, or you give up and move on to something else.
Many are fortunate to start young, it's much easier and they can practice cycling like a game, for fun.
Those who start later, unless they are already athletes, such as triathletes who do very well, have more difficulties. They are more demanding than in their youth, take it more seriously and without the fun, it's often suffering that comes along.

Starting in cycling Starting cycling as an adult is not an easy task, but how many years of pleasure follow, since cycling can be practiced until advanced age.
Cycling, the school of suffering, the school of life and values. Practicing cycling in a club is a personal matter that concerns only oneself, many are individualistic and prefer to organize their trips alone, while others prefer the clubs and their atmosphere, their soul. It is in these clubs that one can learn the values that cycling develops: knowing how to commit to a process, a project, respecting one's physical condition, one's body, being appreciated by others and respecting them to dare to take them on a journey that may be their ordeal. The cyclist is the one who knows how to be small and observant, as much of himself, others, and the regions and cities he travels through.

Finally, cycling is still a sport that can be practiced alone or in a group, day or night, in plain or mountain, whether it rains, snows or windy. The only constraint is that it requires a double investment, a quality bike and a big heart, both in physical and human qualities

AEROBIC BASE TRAINING

The preparation for cycling is primarily based on building a foundation, and the foundation is the beginning of fitness. Building a foundation consists of riding many kilometers, which constitutes a base, a capital. Without a good foundation, I am good for nothing. The training should be progressive, wanting to ride 400 km in 24 hours requires not only a good morale but also a certain amount of foundation training.

Thus, it is important to increase the number of rides gradually. Participating in a 400 km in 24 hours event can be done with four months of preparation by gradually increasing the length of rides from 60 km, then 80 km, then 100, 150, 200, or even 250 km. In terms of km per ride, it is more interesting to multiply them with, for example, rides on Saturdays and Sundays. Experience shows that it is better to do 2 times 100 km than a single 200 km ride, although the latter is interesting in itself. I was able to do a 400 km in 24 hours event with a foundation of 1,200 km in the last month, including a weekend of 480 km (Marseille - Nice and back the next day).
In another way, I was able to observe the benefits of increasing the number of outings, without necessarily covering a large distance. For a few years, I commuted to work on my bike, which was less than 4 km each way, but twice a day, five days a week. And on Sundays, I found myself in better shape than my hiking buddies.

SPECIFIC WORK

The preparation for cycling is specific depending on what one wants to achieve. I have even completed Marathon training with long bike sessions. The key is, I believe, to work on the specific effort that one is seeking. For a long effort on the bike, one should prepare with long bike sessions. For a short-distance effort, sessions focusing on speed should be sought. It is important to exaggerate the aspect one is working on, whether it be sprinting, climbing, endurance, and then reduce it to one-tenth of the execution time for an exercise, and repeat the exercise. For instance, to develop power, I sometimes perform specific workouts consisting of complete sessions with a high gear, but at a low pace, with a low heart rate since that's not the objective. For rhythm sessions, one can repeat an exercise consisting of sprinting for 200 meters, here to increase heart rate and pedaling rhythm, and the gear should be chosen accordingly. From these two examples, one can construct their own sessions by orienting what they do towards what they want to achieve.

NUTRITION

A good diet requires knowing the basic rules of nutrition for athletes.
There is no particular diet for cycling that is not found in other endurance sports.
The rule is that you need to load up the machine before the race by filling up the tanks with the best possible fuel: slow sugars. Slow sugars are, of course, pasta, rice, potatoes, preferably unrefined.
Slow sugars also mean somewhat avoiding quick sugars like tarts, cakes, sodas... All refined products have their equivalent in the range of unrefined products, which provide more energy. Note the excellent sugars provided by fruits.

When to load up the machine: For a 24-hour cycling race, it is recommended to eat slow sugars during the last fifteen days before the race.

During the race, it is necessary to follow these rules with cereal or energy bar intake, paying attention to their sugar levels, which should not be too high. The dosage between slow and fast sugars is not easy, but it will be better illustrated by an example: during the Triathlon de Nice, where the last event is running, the refreshment stations are regularly supplied with soda, which is a quick sugar. Are they crazy on the organization's side or have they been carried away by their sponsors at the expense of triathletes? Soda is a super fuel that burns quickly, doesn't last long, is too sweet, and therefore lowers performance once consumed. The trick is to dilute it in water and hope that the next refreshment station is not lacking this soda.

Slow and fast sugar, the ultimate super fuel, do not go well together with previously stored slow sugars, and the body prefers this sugar to any other. During the race, it is also necessary to eat slightly salty elements to prevent cramps.

To go further

See our articles:

• Nutrition for a 200 km.
• Learning to Cycle.