“I would if I could’ is finished for you now. I would if I could has an ending for you now. From now on, ‘I would if I could’ is over for you and done and finished. You cut it loose you let it go completely and permanently. Your new motto will be ‘I can’ and now you will know that you can. Can you not? Yes you can. ‘I would if I could’ is over and done and finished and gone and ‘I can’ begins.” Rick Collingwood, the Ultimate Cyclist CD

As a coach, I am often able to see the little stresses and doubts that my riders have that prevent the hard work we do in training to materialize into extraordinary results on the road. I can hear the apprehension in a rider’s voice before a big event and I can tell whether it’s a good amount of helpful and constructive excitement or whether it has turned the corner into exhausting anxiety that will sap their energy and reduce their performance. I sometimes hear them say such things as “I’m going to get killed this weekend” or “I’ll never be a climber.” I know that these are sometimes just playful quips, but they also sometimes represent doubt and negative self talk that has manifested into truth. However, identifying these problems and pointing them out is not enough. A very precise and goal oriented approach needs to be taken to not just eliminate these negative self thoughts but to replace them with confidence and self-assurance that will result in more success and more fun on the bike.

While most riders are very good at sticking to a detailed daily training program I find they often have a hard time getting their heads around something as broad and ethereal as mental training, but just as with physical training, psychology can be strengthened through a periodized and structured program. The idea is to get riders to start thinking of it as actual training and to take that approach to it in terms of commitment and preparation. The program starts with building a base which means practicing breathing and relaxation. Each successive step builds on the previous one until finally; the rider can put it all together to create a specific a mental plan for a priority race or event. Having a clear task that must be accomplished each week appeals to the cyclist’s sense of discipline and organization which is why I’ve found this approach which I call “periodization for the mind”, to be so effective.

Step 1: Get Focused

Objective: Teach your body to relax on command
Exercise: Breathing techniques coupled with progressive relaxation imagery
Duration: 5-10 minutes/day for 2 weeks
Seasonal Progression: 9 weeks out from a major event

The first two weeks require nothing more than 5 to 10 minutes per day of deep breathing. Doing it in bed at night is okay, but most people fall asleep before they finish the exercise. I suggest finding some time during the day, either at lunch or when you get home after work. The purpose of this step is to teach yourself how to relax on command gain a broader idea of the mental blocks that might be holding you back.

1. Take a deep breath in, allowing your chest and belly to fill with air
2. Hold the breath for a 5 count
3. Slowly expel the air from your lungs for a 10 count
4. Pause for a 5 count and then repeat

With each inhale, imagine your body filling with a detoxifying, invigorating, blue energy. With each exhale, imagine you are expelling negative energy, stress and pollution. Starting with your scalp and progressing down to your toes, focus on relaxing each body part as you exhale.

Step 2: Become Aware

Objective: Identify conscious and subconscious negative thinking
Exercise: Carry a journal and jot down negative thoughts as they arise
Duration: One week
Seasonal Progression: 7 weeks out from a major event.

After two weeks of relaxation breathing you should notice an increased ability to relax and focus. You’ll notice you’ve gained the ability to take a step away from the tension and anxiety of your every day life in order to expand your view of the horizon. Anxiety creates virtual tunnel vision, a mental state that only allows you to see what is directly in front of you. Self perception becomes clouded by years of negative thinking and detrimental reinforcement from the outside world but we take obvious notice because we are deeply entrenched in it.

As you come out of the tunnel, you will realize that some of the negative beliefs you’ve accepted as truth are merely thoughts that have manifested into reality because of internal reiteration. As you gain perspective you will become aware of mountains of unnecessary negative thoughts which infiltrate your sense of self worth each day.

Carry a pen and paper with you at all times during this period and write down every harmful thought you have. Don’t try to analyze whether it is a truth or just a belief. For the purposes of this exercise your thoughts are your reality and your reality is what you think it is.

Step 3: Create your NEW reality

Objective: Replace your negative thought processes with positive ones
Exercise: Implant new, affirmative thoughts to counteract ongoing critical ones.
Duration: Peak results in 4 weeks – ongoing maintenance advised
Seasonal Progression: 6 weeks out from a major event

Looking over your list of negative thoughts, you’ll probably notice a reoccurring theme. For example, a more common concept is: I’m not good enough or I don’t deserve to be here. Find four of five of these debilitating thoughts. Analyze the essence of the negative fixation and create a counter point to the suggestion. This will be your positive affirmation. Try to come up with something that is distinctly positive but not so outrageous that it’s unbelievable.

Negative words NEVER belong in your mantras. For instance, instead of saying I am not a bad climber, try, I am a good climber. Don’t be afraid to go out on a limb here. You will be surprised to find out how many of the limitations you put upon yourself are absolutely baseless and can be easily fixed by changing your thought process. One that works for me is I am confident, powerful and relaxed whenever I’m on my bike. This particular affirmation was created to counter fears of crashing and self-doubt regarding my place in the Peleton. Though this works for me, your affirmations should be written in your own voice.

Create four or five mantras. During every ride, repeat your mantra out loud and with conviction to yourself for at least 20 minutes. I like to finish each ride with another five minutes of repetition. It reinforces what you’ve already done and keeps the positive thoughts spinning in your head long after the ride is complete. You may feel a little silly at first, but once you start noticing the benefits I guarantee you won’t worry about what anyone is thinking about you.

Step 4: Visualize Success

Objective: Create a picture of success and then achieve it
Exercise: Write a detailed script for your perfect day on the bike, revolving around your upcoming race or event
Duration: 2 weeks
Seasonal Progression: 2 weeks out from a major event

Everything you have done thus far has been designed to improve your general mental state. If you’ve followed the progression, you should notice a greater sense of tranquility, motivation and confidence, not just in your cycling, but in everything you do. Step 4 targets a specific event and channels everything you have done into just a few hours of perfect riding.

Start by writing a script describing, in detail, the most ideal and faultless progression of the big event. For example, you wake up after the perfect night’s sleep feeling rested, excited and optimistic. Your equipment is laid out and ready to go. You drive to the event in record time following perfect directions. You have the ultimate warm up. You feel powerful and confident throughout.

Next, describe the event itself. For this part, it is helpful to draw on past experiences; days when if felt like nothing could hold you back. Contemplate one of those days when everything was “on” and use that to create a vivid, three dimensional painting with words, complete with sounds, smells and sensations. The more detail you include, the more effective your script will be.

Once it is complete, read it out loud to yourself before you go to bed each night. Think about the script as you are falling asleep. Experience every word as if you were in that moment. When you get to the day of your event, you will find that you not only feel and act very much like you did in your script, but that things seemingly outside of your control (such as the pace of the race or the actions of your competitors) seem to be controlled by your visualization. It’s quite amazing – perhaps something that must be experienced to be believed.

You don’t necessarily have to go through this entire process before every big event, but I suggest keeping up with the breathing and the affirmations. The more you do this, the quicker you will be able to incorporate new visualizations and new affirmations into your routines. I look forward to hearing your success stories!

For More Information – Go to Ultimate Sports Psychology

When looking at new equipment for your bike do the gears ever come to mind? We have so many options out there from 11/23 to 12/27 cassettes or standard and compact cranksets. What do you go with? Not all of us live in flat land areas and more often than not the hills are calling to be ridden. So with that in mind what gearing is best suited for most of us to use? It all comes down to efficiency and cadence plays a big roll in that. Even if you’re not racing and just riding to stay in shape and having fun on your bike a cadence around 85 to 95rpm is ideal and a good starting point for riding on the flats. If you are not sure where your cadence is it might be a good idea to get a basic cycling computer that has cadence on it. These can start at around $40. If you find it difficult at first to pedal this fast don’t worry. Give it a week or two and your body will start to adapt and soon it will become second nature. It may take some time but going a little slower and easier can help greatly.

Now getting into the hills is where gearing becomes very important. A lot of times, unless you’re a fast climber, we find ourselves pushing a hard gear with a low cadence. This is effectively like lifting weights and not very efficient. The problem with this at times is that we are already in our easiest gear! In a perfect world it would be great to have the same cadence as we do on flat gound. Well it’s not always perfect but if we can at least get to 80+rpms our efficiency will go up and take strain and fatigue away from our joints and muscles. If you are using standard gearing, most likely a 53 tooth big chainring and 39 tooth small chainring, a cost effective way to help maintain optimum cadence is by changing out your cassette. The gear ratio I suggest quite often is the 12/27 cassette. This still gives us plenty of harder gears for the flats and decents but also gives us a little relief going up hills. Since most of you are using 9, 10 or 11speed now, the spacing between gears won’t be a huge jump either.

If the 12/27 still isn’t enough help in improving cadence and you’re still grinding up the hills, I recomend the compact crank. This is a different crankset altogether and the big chainring is a 50T and usually a 34t small chainring. This smaller chainring provides us more easier gears that will help make spinning a higher cadence up hills much easier. So instead of having to press hard on the pedals with each stroke you can be pushing lightly on the pedals but much more frequently. As with working on a higher cadence on the flats, this too will take some dedication but the benefits will turn into huge efficiency payoffs. Now if you still want to go hard up the hills you have plenty of gears to do this.

I’m sure some of you are wondering, “what will this compact crank do for my top end speed when I go down hills?” If maintaining a 36-38mph pace you can still use the compact. Yes the 50 is smaller and you do lose some top end speed by going to the compact but by going with a different cassette, you can have the best of both worlds. By blending an 11/23 and 12/25 cassette to make an 11/25, you can have your cake and eat it too. Because when you run the compact with the 50/34 chainrings and an 11/25 cassette you have gearing that is still easier than standard 53/39 and 12/27 gearing. With the top end the 50/11 combo is actually a BIGGER gear than the 53/12 combo. With that you now can spin easier than before up the hills and still being able to push the gear while rolling at 38+mph. Sure it takes some doing but as said before it can be well worth it!

- Nate Loyal
Cycling Coach and Bike Fit Specialist
Loyalcoaching.com

One of the best decision I ever made about bike racing was to stop racing and start coaching. It was also one of the easiest. My thought process went like this ‘Oh shit I’m not fit enough to race over THAT’ followed swiftly by ‘It’s about time I helped someone else suffer as much as I have’.
There is then some boring stuff about courses, qualifications and awards and we then get to this point.

And the point is there are some very strange people in the world of bike racing. Well I say strange, that is perhaps putting it too mildly, look at it this way, there are crazy folks out there and they all want me to help them ride their bikes faster.

Over the winter I took a phone call from someone I’d not met asking if their son could ride one of my regular track sessions. Now, my track session are for senior riders that have reached a certain standard and are training or racing on the track. When I asked the caller how old his son was I was told ’8, but he’s very fast for his age’. I pointed out that the session was designed to seniors most of whom raced I was told ‘Well he’d have no problem in keeping up with them, he’s fast you know’, so I said the sessions were two hours long and aimed at building track endurance I was told ‘he’s fast, you know’, feeling I was fighting a losing battle I brought up the question of insurance and safety of other riders, only to be told to ‘don’t worry about insurance, I won’t say anything if you won’t', I then mentioned that my insurance from British Cycling might be an issue and was told ‘get them to change their policies then’. I gave him the number of a junior club that worked out of the track only to be told ‘I’ve tried them and they didn’t seem to want to help’, I wonder why.

The there was the guy who wanted to be an Olympian, a noble ambition, this guy was a triathlete and tri is an Olympic sport. So far so good, I mentioned that if he was aiming that high maybe he should be talking to the national tri coaches. ‘Oh no’ He said, ‘I’ve got a unique project and they didn’t seem interested’ , er go on, I said, whilst frantically trying to get my mobile to ring ‘I want to compete in three different events at the Olympics, cycling, marathon and swimming’. There was a silence as I attempted to teleport myself to another country, it didn’t work, so I talked about conflicting demands of training, and the clashes of events on the day. ‘Oh don’t worry about clashing events’, I was told, ‘I’ve written to the IOC asking them to change the schedule for me.’.

Moving on from the wide and wonderful world of the crazy, there are riders that have a general aim of ‘riding faster’ and want me to help them.
So, I say, what do you mean by faster? ‘Well just faster’ I often hear.
OK, so faster over a set distance like a pursuit or time trial? Faster in a sprint? Faster up a hill? Faster on a Sportive? Faster on your ride to work?
‘All of them, I want to win races’, ah now we’re getting somewhere, which races I ask, needing to start setting goals, ‘All of them, from March to September, I race every week and want to win them all’ When I point out that it is physically impossible to be competitive for that long I see sad faces, and at one point was told ‘call yourself a coach?’ Well, yes I do and any coach will tell you that being competitive over that period of time, week in , week out is impossible.

So we start working on specific goals, finding out what races they like, what races they do well in, what their other commitments they have and then we build a plan. It’s amazing how many cyclists think they’re full time pros who physical ability makes them sprint faster the Cavendish, climb like Contador and TT like Armstrong. When in reality they have 6 hours a week to train, and have a TT position like a dead donkey. Still, from realisation comes reality and something we can all work towards.

So you set a plan and pass over a schedule and then you talk to the rider on a regular basis to see if it’s working. And then the trouble starts. Your rider is reporting that he’s knackered, worn out, exhausted. So you look at the plan and that just shouldn’t be happening, he’s in a recovery phase, he’s taking rest. Maybe he’s sickening for something? You look at the HRM numbers, review the ‘feel good factor’, check his weight, it all looks good, you suggest a doctors visit, you cut right back on the training, but it’s still not good.
So, talk to him day by day and ask him to describe his whole day and then you find the problem. There’s a guy in his club who’s ‘a bit of a coach’, he’s got no experience, no qualifications, but he has read a book. Just the one book mind, called something like ‘Cycle coaching for dummies (beginners edition)’
And this ‘bit of a coach’ has seen your schedule and plan and he’s decided it’s all wrong, he’s decided that your rider is not doing enough miles, so during the phase of recovery, when the rider recovers from the tough seasons training load this ‘bit of a coach’ has had your man riding extra miles, day by day he’s been cranking up the distance at a time when cranking up the rest is what’s needed.
So you tell your rider that he can only be coached by one ‘coach’ and that having two conflicting programmes, one from someone with no qualifications or experience is doing him damage and guess what? ‘It’s make you mind up time’. So he goes with his ‘bit of a coach’ (who of course is not charging for his services) and when you see him the following season his TT times are slower and he’s getting dropped on the hills, he’s been sick a lot, he’s not enjoying it.

Of course in building a plan for a rider you need to know a lot of stuff and a lot of that stuff is not directly connected to the bike. Family support is a good one. It’s easy to forget there are other people in your house, and you need to support each other to be successful. In the past I have recommended that riders take time out to go to the movies with their kids or take the family to the beach. Getting the balance right is what counts, well actually what counts is having a grip on reality, without that don’t even think of employing a coach.

Colin’s Blog: On The Banking
Colins’s Twitter: On The Banking

By Rick Crawford

It’s cold. For cyclists it’s a hard time. Frosty fingers, popsicle toes, rosy chapped faces, shrinking members. Most of us in the lower 48 will have to deal with some crappy weather. There is the banana belt below the 35th degree that enjoys moderate temperatures in the winter, but for the rest, it’s a full load of laundry every day. Of course, the weather should be no deterrent; the typical cyclist makes the postman seem timid. As noble as the pursuit is, it is a crime to get bundled up and suffer so, and not get the just rewards from the effort. Here are some tips as to how to make the most out of the chilly months.

First, it should be obvious that the right clothing for the job is necessary. Yet, I am always shocked at the variety of creative fashions I observe on the often snow-packed roads in Durango. Rule number one, protect the core. If head and core are warm, the overflow heat will trickle out to the extremities, which are the first to suffer. Protect your knees well; there’s no fat there to protect the superficial tissues that hold you together, and cold weather can bring on some wicked joint pain. Layer up so that comfort can be arrived at by peeling off and adding on as needed. High-tech fabrics are compact, light, and effective. Some watertight and insulated booties will go a long way to prolonging your comfort zone on long cold rides. Your old enough to dress yourself… enough said.

I should add that mid-winter isn’t the time to see how lean you can get. Having a little of your own homegrown adipose insulation is a natural safe-guard to cold conditions. I recommend that my athletes take the winter to eat like normal humans, and enjoy the off-season, so that when the time does come for the Spartan life, they have plenty of reserves. That small layer of subcutaneous fat goes a long way in keeping you warm. Don’t diet during the winter… it eats away at your brain too. Be happy with the skin you’re in and the fat underneath it too.

I found a secret weapon that really helps the winter go by with less slush up my backside, drier feets, and opened up a new frontier of training possibilities. I recommend a special winter training rig for the nasty days, with real front and rear fenders, and a go-anywhere constitution. I actually had a mutt built from an old mountain bike that would essentially go anywhere in any condition. Nothing stops the mutt. It will roll through six inches of slush leaving the water in the gutter and not on me. Skinny 26” commuter tires are just about impossible to flat. When it gets really nasty outside, I’ll head for the snow-covered dirt roads where I’m unlikely to encounter motorists slipping around out of control. The mutt is a heavy rig, and ugly as sin, but it is a Hummer of a bike, and I don’t worry about getting it dirty, or missing days because I’m afraid of trashing my equipment. Let me reiterate about the fenders… you need a front fender that goes a good ways around behind the tire so you’re feet aren’t wet the first time you hit a slush puddle. A cyclo-cross rig that has ample room for a hefty tire and the fenders is the ultimate winter rig. I don’t recommend taking your ultra-sweet racing rig out in the nasties… get a beater and thrash it… beaters love that stuff and it just makes your sweet rig so much better when the weather breaks.

I go to this trouble because I know that the alternative is sweating puddles on the carpet while watching the Seinfeld marathon on TV. While entertainment is varied and abundant these days, making indoor training much more pleasant, I recommend avoiding long trainer sessions on a regular basis. I limit my riders to no more than 3 hours indoors per day, split into two rides of 1.5 hours, and that is drastic measures. It is inherent as a cyclist to be outdoors, and we are hard-wired for it. Simulating riding on a trainer is a poor substitution, and will most likely lead to premature burnout. Every minute on the trainer indoors has some burnout factor with it and it varies per individual. Best be aware of it, and prepare. I can personally say that there isn’t much that Mother Nature can throw at you that can’t be trained through if you are prepared. Some trainer-time is necessary, but keep it in check. Be prepared to cross-train. When it snows here, we get out the skinny skis, or go snowshoeing, or take the mutt on a backroad jaunt. If rain is your foe, there’s gear to handle it; rain should stop no rides.

Another popular winter training solution is to load up the truck and head south. Get yourself to those warm places down where the weather is likely not to pose a threat to you on a daily basis. This is when you cash in those favors with friends that live there. Or you just go, knowing that you may have to sleep on someone’s couch, but the sun will shine on you, and it will be warm… things that make a cyclist sleep well anywhere. I really think that some cold weather makes for tough, hard cyclists that can endure the elements. But I won’t judge you for heading south to put in some big winter hours.

If heading south isn’t an option, try to keep it real. Use a common sense factor in your training schedule. I create training programs daily, with the knowledge that the recipient will suffer all to complete it. It’s important to make realistic adjustments when the conditions are poor. Forging through without awareness of how the Central Nervous System is depleted is foolhardy. Winter is a great time to get fit, if you are prepared for it. Opportunities to get off the bike and cross-train should be welcomed. The day will come for the great thaw. In the meantime, be prepared for winter’s rigors. Don’t get pissed when it snows or rains. Just get the necessary gear and go enjoy it. I love winter. I came to Durango so I could enjoy winter. Get it in your head that you will enjoy it, come rain or snow, sleet or hail. I remember jumping in puddles when I was a lad and life was good! With the right gear and the right mind, bad weather can be what makes cycling special. You may not remember all the pretty days you went out, but you’ll definitely remember the nastiest ones… get out there, be prepared, and giggle like a kid on a slippy-slide. Or head south and enjoy the warm. Take care of your CNS during the winter and it will take care of you in the long season to come.

To learn more about Rick Crawford and Colorado Premier Training CLICK HERE

There are a few factors to hold in your mind as you enter a turn…

1.) Body position

a. Inside knee angled out toward the turn.
b. Outside leg and arm weighted down / pressure on the outside pedal.
c. Body weight on the center of the bike with focus on weighting down the rear wheel, head is aligned over the outside brake lever.
d. head turned looking where you want to go.

2.) Countersteering
a. When turning left, as you are entering the turn the left arm pushes the handlebars straight. This effectively turns your wheels away from the turn but lets your bike fall into the turn, enabling you to go around it. The more speed into the turn the better this will work.
b. The body will naturally align itself across the top tube *Head should be lined up with the outside (in this case the right ) brake hood.

3. Angulation; this is what a skier does when making sharp turns on a steep descent.
Simply put:
The bike can be tilted deeply into a turn and the body compensates for this by staying upright and over the center of the bike. So the body is adhering to gravity, as the bike dips down toward the ground where it would fall except for the body overcompensating for it.

4.) Braking
a. Braking will affect the handling of the bike in the turn.
b. Brake before the turn as much as you think you’ll need, then whilst in the turn if you need to slow more feather the brakes. Do not grab them hard. I like using the front brake on a descent when I need to slow down mid turn, it really is an efficient brake compared with the back brake. Just be careful you don’t lock it up.

5.) Finding the right line
The best line thru a turn is a straight one. If you can’t do it straight then the next best thing is to start the turn before the actual turn. If you are approaching a sharp left hander you want to start on the far right side of the road. (You want to anticipate the turn so you have most of it accomplished before you reach the apex of the turn.)
Swing towards the inside and then back outside to the far right again.

6.)Turning in wet conditions
a. Stay relaxed
b. Body is aligned over the bike and the leaning aspect is minimized.
c. The point here is to have as much tire on the road.
d. Avoid countersteering.

This is a lot to remember I know but with practice you will find which techniques work for you and once they become ingrained, then you can move on and incorporate other techniques on this list.

Aron Gadhia, CPT, USACC
www.ag-fit.com

The best way to train is by going as hard as you can for as long as you can on every ride you do, right? As we begin the off-season in the northern hemisphere, let’s examine the idea of base training. First up, we discuss the dreaded “Zone 3 plateau” and how to begin getting out of the cycle of constant hammering.
The Hammer Syndrome

We may be entering the age of power monitoring and periodization of training, yet it remains difficult for many riders to wrap their heads around what smart training really means. The philosophy of “hard riding” is one of the pervading cycling training misconceptions of the 21st century. It is the idea that periodization and scientifically-based training is great for those with time to burn, but for those under severe time restraints, the way to get the best bang for our buck is by going hard all day, every day.

Even those who don’t consciously embrace this antiquated training methodology often fall to its pretty clutches when they get caught up in the group ride hammerfest mentality. Even when they set out for a moderate or easy recovery ride, they can’t resist the temptation to jump on with the first group that comes flying by. The pace skyrockets at the rise in the road and the end result is the same—a never-ending string of high-tempo riding with little to no recovery.

The result of this type of training is an ailment I call the Zone 3 Syndrome. Before we get into the syndrome itself, let’s do a little self-diagnosis. Start by asking yourself the following questions:

* Are you exceedingly proud of the average speeds of your rides, and do you gauge your training progress by the improvement of your average speed from one ride to another?
* Do you find group rides fairly easy, even when the pace picks up, yet you can’t seem to make that final acceleration or stay with the group over the steepest part of the climb?
* Do you have a maximum heart rate of 195, yet you haven’t seen it go above 180 since the season began?
* Does the thought of letting a rider pass you on the bike path make you ill, or do you pride yourself on the fact that no rider has ever passed you on a training ride—even on recovery days?
* Do you often leave the house with one ride in mind but more often than not find yourself in the middle of the weekday morning world championships?
* Do you find it impossible to imagine that riding with a heart rate at 130 beats-per-minute could possibly be anything other than an utter waste of time?

If you answered yes to any of these questions, you might be suffering from the Zone 3 Syndrome.
The Problems with Plateau

Whether it’s a desire to get the most out of every minute on the bike or just an inability to resist the temptation of searing your lungs on a daily basis, the effect is the same when you’re caught in the rut of the Zone 3 Syndrome. Intensity on every ride with no recovery results in sustained and difficult-to-overcome mediocrity and a seemingly endless plateau of middle-of-the-road fitness.

Because adequate recovery time is not given between workouts, the body reaches a level of sustained exhaustion. Due to this ongoing exhaustion, the upper reaches of intensity required to induce training adaptation are not attainable. Workouts that are intended to be done in zone 4 (threshold) and zone 5 (anaerobic) all wind up hovering within a stones throw of zone 3 (tempo, otherwise known as the dreaded grey zone).

To make matters worse, as a result of frustration with poor maximum efforts and sustained plateaus of fitness, the rider grows desperate to break though. Thus zone 1 recovery rides and zone 2 endurance rides start to creep up in intensity until, across the board, every mile is done in this foggy, dead zone of zone 3 riding.

Although there is a time and a place for zone 3, generally speaking, it is not considered hard enough to cause a desired physical adaptation. At the same time, it is too hard to allow for proper recovery. Therefore, you don’t want to be spending the majority of your time there. Remember the old adage: When you go fast, you should be going really fast. And when you’re going slow, you should be going really slow.

For Page Two: CLICK HERE

What is “Good” Pedaling Technique?

If you have completed a long season of road, mountain bike or triathlon racing, the fall and winter months are the time to back off from the high intensity stress of competition and focus on things like getting in those steady miles, cross training, unstructured fun rides and technique. Proper cycling technique is often touted as a critical aspect of cycling performance. Claims are made about greatly increasing economy, efficiency, power at the same heart rate, etc. if you regularly spend time doing various drills on the bike to improve technique.

But what is “good” pedaling technique in cycling anyway? Is it pedaling in circles, mashing, or somewhere in between? Does “good” pedaling technique differ between cycling disciplines? And of course, in the end how much does it all matter?

First, let’s dispel the notion of realizing “huge” gains in cycling economy/efficiency simply from technique training. Unless you are literally wrestling with the bike and/or incorporating excessive upper body movement, your aerobic fitness (% MSS vs. maximal aerobic power) and genetic talents (% of type I muscle fiber) will largely determine your cycling economy (or the ratio of VO2 and watts) for a given intensity during cycling (1, 2). Also, due to the confines of being connected to the bike, efficiency and economy are essentially the same for most trained cyclists. This isn’t to say that pedaling technique is not an aspect of your training you should ignore. Rather it is important to appropriately distribute training time and energy based on prospective gains.

However, to get some insight into what is good technique, the renowned Dr. Ed Coyle and his cohorts published a notable paper comparing “elite national class” (group 1) and “good state class” (group 2) cyclists (3). What they found from a simulated 40k time trial on a laboratory ergometer was that the more powerful national class cyclists had higher peak torque values during the down stroke compared with the other group; i.e. the slower group pedaled in smoother circles compared to the faster group that relatively mashed (Fig. 1). Similar average economy (VO2 vs. watts) was seen in both groups. –
Figure 1 -

It’s interesting to note that the authors felt that the technique employed by group 2 was a more effective approach based on the total effective pedal forces (what is typically referred to as a more efficient technique, better spin, smoother stroke, etc). Put another way, group 2’s technique more effectively eliminated the “dead spots” at the top and bottom of the pedal stroke. However, since economy was not significantly different, group 1 demonstrated that at the intensity most highly correlated with successful road/mountain performance (2: equivalent to mid z4 for Whole Athlete) it was of primary concern to put power to the pedals as effectively as possible during the most naturally powerful part of the pedal stroke, the down stroke. Group 1 did however apply enough torque during the upstroke to keep from imparting any significant negative torque that would work against forward propulsion.

Put it all together and the foundation for good pedaling technique at race pace/long time trial intensity or higher comes down to maximizing downward force production and lifting just enough on the upstroke to un-weight the rising leg, eliminating any potential negative torque (Fig. 2). Although these concepts lay the groundwork for a powerful pedal stroke, there are other considerations to account for.

The Coyle (3) study looked at road cyclists ranging from top 20 performers at state ITT championships all the way to former national TT champions. But what about triathletes, mountain bikers, track racers, any cyclist with injuries to consider or lower intensities?

CLICK HERE FOR THE REST OF THE ARTICLE

An interesting article from the August 14 edition of The New York Times that
is especially relevant for us endurance athletes. Enjoy.

Sweatology
By ABIGAIL ZUGER

Like the finish line of a long road race, the Times Square subway platform
one recent hot afternoon was a study in wet humanity, from drenched (a large
woman in shorts and a skimpy, sweat-splotched top, flushed and vigorously
fanning herself), to barely bedewed (an elderly man in a suit and tie calmly
reading his paper).

Who would believe that every sufferer had the same model of personal
air-conditioner operating at full blast?

Sweat is our interior coolant, part of a uniquely human biologic machine.
The machine drips and occasionally stalls: long waits on torpid platforms
can inspire glum reflections on how it will hold up as the planet heats up.
But experts counsel optimism: the system is sturdy, adjustable and even
reproducible by engineers working to make our future sweaty selves more
comfortable.

Humans operate in a tiny range of preferred internal temperatures. We can
tolerate overcooling, routinely recovering from long periods of hypothermia
with body temperatures diving 20 or more degrees below normal.

But we have little tolerance for even brief overheating: the brain
malfunctions with six or seven degrees of fever, and an internal temperature
of 110, barely a dozen degrees above normal, is often cited as the upper
limit compatible with life. So a good internal air-conditioner is essential,
both to dissipate the heat generated by the body?s metabolism and to relieve
the heat absorbed from miserable summer weather.

?It is plain old unglamorous sweat that has made humans what they are
today,? writes the evolutionary anthropologist Nina G. Jablonski in her
recent book ?Skin.? ?Without plentiful sweat glands keeping us cool with
copious sweat, we would still be clad in the thick hair of our ancestors,
living largely apelike lives.?

Fur inhibits sweat-induced cooling, and furry animals generally have other
ways to lose heat. In humans, Dr. Jablonski argues, sweat glands evolved as
body hair vanished, allowing optimal cooling of the enlarging hominid brain
and an active lifestyle even in the blazing sun.

For sedentary pursuits in temperate weather, people have no need to sweat:
excess metabolic heat easily moves from blood vessels at the surface of the
skin into the surrounding air. Because the skin is not completely
waterproof, some evaporation of water from skin cells adds a little extra
cooling.

But when the body?s owner decides to exercise, the muscles generate too much
heat for the air to absorb. The same thing happens when the temperature
climbs into the 90s: the skin stops losing heat to the air and absorbs it
instead. Then temperature-sensing nerves in the skin and the body?s interior
tell the brain to unleash a flow of sweat for heavy-duty evaporation and
cooling.

Humidity reduces evaporation and makes everyone sweatier. A breeze enhances
evaporation and makes skin cooler (unless the air is so hot the body absorbs
its heat instead). Dehydration markedly reduces sweat production. So does
sunburn.

But individual sweat patterns still vary enormously. Age, sex, genes, weight
and shape play a role, said Craig Crandall, a thermoregulation expert at
University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center and Presbyterian Hospital,
both in Dallas. So does nonexercise activity, and so, according to a pivotal
set of sweat studies done during World War II, does clothing, although not
in the way one might predict.

Some people have fewer than two million sweat glands; some have as many as
four million. Heavy sweaters may have glands five times average size; their
big glands are more sensitive to nerve stimuli and make more sweat.

Everyone?s inner temperature cycles around a slightly different genetically
determined version of 98.6 set by the hypothalamus, the brain region that
serves as thermostat. We run a little cooler in the morning, a little warmer
in the late afternoon. Women run about half a degree higher after ovulation.
With menopause the female thermostat becomes notoriously trigger-happy,
imagining excess heat where none exists and generating unnecessary sweat.

Men may be more thermally stable, but not for long: beginning about age 60
both sexes sweat less, even if they are in good physical condition, and even
if they become seriously overheated. Thus the statistics that during heat
waves the elderly are at highest risk of heat stroke.

As for obesity, it is complicated, Dr. Crandall said. Fat may insulate the
interior from very hot external temperatures, but it also may compromise
heat transfer from interior to skin. Carrying more weight generates more
metabolic heat to get rid of. That means more sweat, but research suggests
that large people cannot grow more sweat glands to cope with the extra heat
load. Radiation of heat from skin to air may become especially important in
their heat control.

Over all, though, these factors make small difference in sweat rate. The
bigger differences come from activities that may fall short of exercise.
Even brief spurts of walking or leg jiggling generate metabolic heat that
turns into sweat, as do anger and frustration. The sweatiest person on the
subway platform is probably the one who just ran for a train and missed it,
Dr. Crandall said.

And as for clothing: less is not always better. In studies during World War
II, researchers sat volunteers on wooden boxes in the California desert,
some wearing standard olive drab military fatigues, some in light tan summer
uniforms, and some ?near naked.? The unclothed ?soldiers? sweated about 30
percent more than the others ? an indication of how much heat their
unprotected skin was absorbing from the environment.

And so the average urban warrior might be forewarned that near-nudity on hot
subway platforms may be counterproductive, as may be vigorous fanning,
pacing and gesticulating if the train is late.

What will happen as the planet heats and more is asked of our sweat glands?
No problem, experts say: the system can easily rev up into a high, efficient
gear.

The process is called heat acclimation and is routinely seen in athletes
training in hot weather. At first their internal temperatures climb, they
sweat profusely, lose large quantities of salt in their sweat and feel
miserable. But as the days pass they sweat even more, their salt loss
diminishes, both skin and internal temperatures drop, and their endurance
improves.

At least in part, heat acclimation reflects bigger, juicier sweat glands: in
monkeys exposed to continuous heat and humidity, individual sweat glands
more than doubled in volume after only two months.

And it took only a week or so for the research subjects in the California
desert to develop high sweat rates, low pulse rates and low rectal
temperatures. They could work more comfortably, with greatly improved
well-being.

In the words of the scientists, they had become ?desertworthy.?

All in all, Dr. Crandall pointed out, global warming is likely to be far
less thermally dramatic for the individual person than a relocation from
Canada to Florida, with its accompaniment of larger, more efficient sweat
glands and slightly moister skin.

If the world does become a sweatier place, some engineers are primed to
cope. Two years ago, a team at the United States Department of Energy?s
National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Colorado completed work on a
mannequin, christened Adam, who sweats like a human being and can complain
like one, too.

Adam?s slim carbon frame is covered with 120 separate temperature-sensing
and sweating zones; water seeps from an interior two-quart reservoir out
through his porous skin. He is wirelessly connected to a computer whose
software forms his hypothalamus. Other software based on human reactions to
a range of temperatures provides estimates of his comfort in various
situations.

Adam was devised to help reduce automobile fuel consumption by evaluating
ways to limit air-conditioner use. Fully dressed in a car parked in the hot
sun, he gets as wet on his back and rear end as any human driver, and just
as irritable. Programmers can also rev up his metabolic rate to provide a
good, sweaty simulation of road rage, said one of his creators, John Rugh, a
senior mechanical engineer.

Adam has helped evaluate clothes for astronauts to wear underneath their
spacesuits, and devices to warm injured soldiers. Currently unemployed, he
is looking for other work mimicking the human experience in temperature
extremes, Mr. Rugh said.

By: Josh Horowitz of Liquid Fitness

If I could only give out one piece of cycling advice for the rest of my days as a coach, it would be this. “Conserve energy whenever possible.”

When you ride your bike, whether it is for training, to have fun with friends or for competition, you have a finite amount of energy. You are limited by glycogen stores, muscular and cardiovascular endurance and perhaps most importantly, patience and persistence. The key is to use more of that limited energy to propel you forward and less on wasteful things such as nervousness or a hurkey jerkey pedal stroke.

Even if you aren’t a serious competitor, addressing some of these concerns can greatly improve your enjoyment of the sport. Becoming a more efficient cyclist means being more comforatable on the bike. With a smooth, round pedal stroke, a confident and relaxed attitude and a less wasteful distribution of energy, not only will you be able to go faster and farther, but you will have more fun as you go.

ANXIETY

Most of us don’t realize what a toll anxiety and nerves take on our energy levels. Emotional stress exhausts the body in the same way as physical stress so it must be considered when eliminating inefficiencies.

Cycling Confidence

Make a fist. Squeeze it as hard as you can for a full minute. Your hand, your wrist and even your bicep get pretty tired. Now imagine doing the same thing but with your neck, your shoulders and your arms for two hours while at the same time trying to pedal a bicycle. Sounds crazy, but that’s what a lot of us do every time we ride our bikes. And that’s just the physical manifestation of stress. On top of that, add the constant self doubt and anxiety hidden just below the surface that is eating away at our available riding energy. One way to combat these wasteful energy leaks is to work on your cycling confidence. This means having faith in your cycling ability.

One of the best ways to address this is to set aside just a few minutes each week to practice skills drills. Try picking up water bottles in a parking lot, bumping shoulders with your riding buddies or touching wheels on a grassy field. When I put on a skills clinic, 90% of what we do is designed around increasing relaxation and confidence on the bike. Being able to touch your front wheel against the rear wheel of the riders in front of you without going down isn’t necessarily a skill you would want to practice during the sprint on your next club ride, but knowing you could do it if you had to will give you the confidence you need to throw all your energy and concentration into the ride without wasting calories worrying about going down. If there is one thing I have learned over the years, it is that you might go down and you might not, but worrying about it never helps.

Visualizations and Mantras

There is an unlimited list of things to worry about while riding including but not limited to, traffic, potholes, flat tires, bonking, that creaking noise every time you stand up and of course, getting dropped. Think about how much more energy you would have if you could forget all that and just enjoy the ride.

The mind is an incredibly powerful tool and it can be responsible for our successes on the bike as well as our downfall. Fortunately, there are a few simple techniques you can use to ensure that your mind is your ally. Try doing 5 minutes a day of deep breathing, along with a simple visualization of yourself feeling confident, relaxed and happy as you cruise along in a stressful riding scenario. Breathe in deeply through your nose and feel your belly expand. Hold it for a count of 3 and then breathe out slowly through your mouth. Hold that for a count of 3 and repeat. Imagine the inhalation full of pure, calming energy that relaxes every muscle in your body. Imagine the exhalation cleanses you of the anxiety and toxins that have built up in your body over the course of the day. During your visualization, don’t just see yourself riding confidently on that killer climb or dangerous descent, but actually experience it as if you were there.

Another trick is to say mantras as you ride. One that I use goes like this. “I’m a smooth, confident, efficient cyclist”. Pick one that is personal to your own needs and though patterns. Not only will this help to replace some of the negative self perceptions you may have acquired over the years, but it will also help to drown out all those needless worries that go racing through your mind no matter how hard you try to stop them. The next time you are suddenly jerked out of the peace and tranquility of a challenging climb by worries about something that happened at work or a fight you had with your spouse, try replacing those negative thoughts with something like, “I’m a skilled and powerful climber”. Repeat it over and over to yourself until you find yourself lost again in the rhythm of your pedaling. It may just give you that slight edge you need to get up and over.

We’ll approach this subject in more detail later on.

PEDALING EFFICIENCY

The biggest waste of energy for any cyclist is often in the pedal stroke itself. The first thing that needs to be addressed is proper position. An expert bike fit can not only improve your comfort and prevent injury but also add several percentage points to your power output. Assuming your saddle height and fore/aft is correct, the next thing to do is to work on various pedaling techniques. On a typical two hour ride, you might take about 10,000 pedal strokes. Even if you are only wasting a tiny bit of energy on each one, it can add up to a major energy deficit by the end of the ride.

Pedaling Skills

Once or twice a week on your schedule you will find the High Spin interval or, No Load Revving. The idea with this is to train the body to spin efficiently even at very high cadences. On a flat section of road, pick an easy gear and spin up to 120 rpm for 10 minutes straight. At first, you will bounce around and experience all sorts of discomfort but as your muscle memory develops, you will become smoother and more efficient. You can actually see the improvement in efficiency as, your heart rate may drop 10 to 15 beats at the same effort over a very short period of time. By wasting less energy, your heart does not need to beat as hard to keep you going.

Another drill I suggest that you do on your own is called Single Legged Pedaling. On a flat road, un-clip one foot and pedal for 30 seconds to a minute with only one leg. Right away it becomes obvious where the “dead spots” in your pedal stroke are. After only a minute of pedaling with only one leg, you may start to have trouble completing the entire pedal stroke. This is a great indicator of the muscles that you need to develop to complete a perfect pedal stroke. Try practicing this drill during your warm down after every ride you do.

Top 10 questions asked to (I’m guessing) just about any cycling coach.

1. I’m feeling tired, should I do my intervals today?
2. I couldn’t get my heart rate into the proper zone on my training ride today. What should I do?
3. I’m feeling a little under the weather. Should I ride or take the day off?
4. I missed the last week of riding due to travel. How should I make up the missed workouts?
5. I’m doing a crit this weekend. What should my strategy be?
6. I have a hard week of training in front of me but I hope to race and do well on the weekend. How should I alter my schedule?
7. I’m looking to upgrade my ride. What is the best place to spend my money?
8. It’s been a long year and I’m having trouble staying motivated. Any suggestions.
9. I’ve been trying desperately to lose weight, but it’s hard to diet and keep my energy levels up for training. What should I do?
10. What is the best software for keeping track of my power data?

Ok, here we go!

1. Q. I’m feeling tired. Should I do my intervals today?

   A. For me, this was always the biggest question I had to face every day as a young cyclist, especially when I was working 60 hours a week and trying to race as a cat 2.

   Do I go back to bed and get some much need recovery or do I drag myself out of the house on a cold dark winter morning and flog myself?

   What this person is really asking, whether they realize it or not is ‘Am I over trained or am I over reaching?’ It is perfectly natural for you to feel tired before certain training rides and even races. This is called over reaching. It is part of the adaptation process and a certain level of physical exhaustion followed by proper recovery is necessary to see improvement in you fitness. The question is how are you to know when this tired feeling is due to normal training stress or if there is something more.
   
   The first thing to do is check that old stand by, the resting heart rate. Although taking your resting heart rate every morning can seem like a real chore it’s actually pretty easy once you get into the habit of doing it and it can be an invaluable training tool. The important thing is to always look at the number in the context of your past data and never compare it to anyone expect yourself. The benchmark for resting heart rate in the past has always been anything above a 10% increase from your usual RHR means take a recovery day while anything below that means you can still ride. However, as I always say, instead of relying on pure data, try to put it in context with “The Big Picture”.

   If the high resting heart rate is an aberration, it may be due to other factors such as stress or anxiety or even poor sleep. If you think this may be the case, get out of bed and take a shot at the intervals. If your power is off or you are struggling to get into the proper heart rate zone, back off and ride easy for the remainder of your ride. Or, if this is the last day of a hard 3 or 4 week block of training, I would expect a steady increase in RHR. In this case, I would usually suggest getting on the bike and doing your best to complete those intervals. Since you’ve got a week of recovery coming up, you should be ok even if you over do it a little.

   Finally, the best tool any rider has to judge whether or not they should attempt to finish a workout is the power meter. It’s a completely subjective judge of your strength on a given day. Go out and do your first interval. If you feel like crap and your heart rate is sitting in the basement, but your power is where it needs to be, then you are cleared for take off. Grab a big cup of coffee and finish that ride. However, if your power is way off what you know you can do, go home and get back into bed.

2. Q. I couldn’t get my heart rate into the proper zone on my training ride today. What does this mean?

   A. This is sort of part b to the previous question, but it is one of the most common things that riders needlessly stress out about. Heart rate is a very subjective measurement and it’s going to change dramatically based on weather, mental stress, sleep, training stress and a host of other things. Those of you who have a power meter can see this very easily by comparing heart rate from one day to the next on a similar interval. For myself, at the beginning of a training cycle, my heart rate at my threshold of 350 watts might be as high as 170, but a week or two later when I am tired, 350 watts could produce a heart rate as low as 155. This is one of the reasons that coaches subscribe heart rate zones with 10 to 20 beat ranges. But remember, even if your heart rate is below the prescribed range, but you feel like you are carrying a proper workload, go ahead and continue the workout. Always keep in mind that the object of training is to increase your power output, not your heart rate.

   The second part of this answer is to keep track of these fluctuations so that you can understand your body better. Keep track of how your heart rate responds to hard training. Just like resting heart rate, try to study your exercise heart rate so that you can track changes and decide whether they indicate a potential problem or just the natural flow of the training.

3. Q. I’m sick. Should I ride or take the day off?

   A. The usual answer to this is that if the cold is in your head only, you are ok to ride easy. If it is in your chest, then you should take the day off completely. Anything worse than a cold such as a flu also means a day or more completely off the bike. The only addendum I have from my own personal and coaching experience is to always err on the side of caution in these situations. Although at the time it may seem like the end of the world if you miss that all important training ride, in the grand scheme of things, it is a thousand times better to rest up, get better and return to your full training schedule as soon as possible rather than spend weeks wallowing in that training limbo where you are trying to recover while at the same time trying to train. Better to miss a week now than a full month down the road.

4. Q. I missed the last week of riding due to travel. How should I make up the missed workouts?

   A. I always like this question because it has a very simple answer. NEVER try to make up for missed workouts. The only thing my High School wrestling coach ever taught me that I remember to this day is that you can never make up for a missed workout. Once it’s gone, it’s gone and you have to move on from there. That definitely applies to cycling. Usually if I have a client who unexpectedly misses a week of training, I bring them back into the flow of their schedule no matter where we left off. If they have a recovery week coming up, then except for a few small adjustments, we’ll flow right into that recovery week. The most important thing is to keep the cycles flowing as smoothly as possible. When you try to make up for missed workouts, you may be ok for a week or two, but eventually it will catch up to you and you will be tired when you are supposed to be fresh.

   The most important thing is to not stress about missed workouts. If you have to miss a day or even a week, there is nothing you can do about it. Enjoy the time off and just assume that you needed it anyway. The last thing you want is to return to the bike more tired than when you left because you’ve been freaking out about all your missed workouts. One last tip is that as far as I’m concerned, a long day of travel whether it is in the car or on the plane counts as a hard training day. Traveling is exhausting so make sure to give yourself a recovery day to get back into the groove after any hard day on the move.

5. Q. I’m doing a race this weekend. What should my strategy be?

   A. As a coach, I always want my riders to be as prepared as possible for any competition and fortunately, in the past 16 years I have done most of the larger races in the US and many of the smaller ones as well. However, it is still difficult to dictate strategy without actually being there and knowing the competition and the race conditions.

   So the simple answer is, ‘It depends.’ In bicycle racing, you always have to go into a race with a plan, but at the same time, you have to be ready to throw out that plan and improvise at the drop of a hat. So without knowing anything about the race, here are some simple race strategies that apply across the board.

   Get a good warm up, fuel yourself with water and carbs, get a good night sleep and mentally prepare yourself through affirmations and visualizations. Check your equipment the day before and come to the start line with confidence. Always be aware of what is going on around you. Know who your competition is and what their strengths and weaknesses are. Conserve energy whenever possible. Never do any work unless you know exactly why you are doing it. Always be aware of where you are in the group and what you are doing.

   Imagine the race could be stopped at any minute and someone could come out and say to you, “What are you doing right this second to improve your chances of winning this race?” If you don’t have an answer, figure one out and then go do it. Finally, make sure you use your strengths and minimize your weaknesses. If you know you can’t win in a sprint, try to break away. If you know you can win the sprint if you can only get to the line fresh, suck wheel like you’ve never sucked wheel before. I think many riders let the race dictate their actions but as much as possible, try to control the race and make the circumstances work for you.

6. Q. I have a hard week of training in front of me but I hope to race and do well on the weekend. How should I alter my schedule?

   A. Cycling is a tough sport to train for. Cat 3′s and 4′s will often race every single weekend while elite riders may race 3 or 4 times in a given week. The fact is, you can’t peak for every race. If you did that, you’d be spending more time peaking than actually training. For most cyclists, 90% of your races should be considered training. This does not mean you can’t do well (I’ve had some of my best races on days when I could barely get out of bed.), but it does mean that you will have to train through most of your races and pick just a few that you will taper for.

   I think a major problem that a lot of riders have is they think that they need to take a rest day before a race if they want to have any chance of doing well. Mentally, if they wake up in the morning feeling tired with heavy legs, they’ve already counted themselves out. In fact, almost every rider I coach does better on the second day of intensity than they do after a recovery day. I keep careful track of this in their training logs and any time I hear this particular complaint, I can steer them back to a certain series of workouts and show them how their body operates better when the pump is primed and the legs are expecting a good flogging.

7. Q. I’m looking to upgrade my ride. What is the best place to spend my money?

   A. The first answer is always a good coach. No amount of money in the world will buy you a bike that is going to continue to improve your performance year after year like a good coach. But since this article is all about being your own coach, we’ll skip ahead to the hardware. Usually, my answer would be a power measuring device. However, I prefer to steer newer riders away from this because there is still so much they can learn just from getting out there and riding with a heart rate monitor. I also try to steer the number crunchers away from the power meters. These riders (and you know who you are), can get so overwhelmed by the sheer amount of data they collect, that it can not only harm their performance, but also take away some of the fun of riding. However, if you are willing to invest the time into learning about and understanding how power works and why it is so important, than no other piece of equipment will give you the training edge like a good power meter.

   And for those who are looking for an answer with the word carbon in it, I’ll go ahead and say it. Wheels. A good set of lightweight wheels can completely change the way your bike rides. Since rotating weight is such a key number, a few ounces saved at the rim can make your bike feel a pound or two lighter on the climbs. After that, grab a nice set of tires to go with them.

8. Q. It’s been a long year and I’m having trouble staying motivated. Any suggestions?

   A. This is always a tough time of year. Most of us have been going non stop since December or January and we are tired. However, it’s only August and it’s a little too early to take a break and start with off season training. While burnout or overtraining are definite reasons to get off the bike, if you are going to keep riding, you want to continue to have high quality, fun workouts. So here are some tips on staying motivated.

   Everyone finds inspiration from different places and it is now time for you to look down inside yourself and find out where your motivation comes from. If it comes from competition, get out there and do whatever race or competition you can find, even if it is something you have never done before or don’t think you’ll be good at. If your inspiration comes from riding with friends or teammates, take some time away from your rigid training schedule and go out for a group ride, or get your friends together for some climbing. And if it comes from challenging yourself to new heights, go out and try to beat that old record you set on the local climb. No matter what, the most important thing is to remember why you ride and to have some fun. It’s easy to get tangled up inside your own head and often we forget the pure visceral thrill of riding a bike.

   Also, take this time to think about what you’ve accomplished over the past year. What did you achieve and what goals did you not quite reach? More importantly, what did you learn, not just about riding or racing, but about yourself? What did you learn about your body and the way it responds to different types of training stress? What mistakes did you make and how will you correct them next year? It’s never too early to start thinking about next season and how you will make it even better than the year before.

   Above all else, when you get to that point where your legs are no longer fresh and riding seems too much like a chore, PUT THE BIKE AWAY! Cover your bike with a blanket and don’t even look at it for two full weeks. Catch up on some TV, play computer games, send some e-mails. Let your body rest and prepare itself for another go round. Trust me, you’ve earned it.

9. Q. I’ve been trying desperately to lose weight, but it’s hard to diet and keep my energy levels up for training. What should I do?

   A. Losing weight is a very tough proposition for a cyclist. How do you cut calories while maintaining your energy levels? My philosophy is that rather than cutting calories, you must increase your metabolism so that the more you eat, the more you burn.

   Besides eating sensibly (which I am going to assume most of you know how to do), I have picked up a few tricks over the years that seem to work. First, Metabolism is the main thing you are fighting against. Forget counting carbs and calories. The cyclists metabolism often adjusts precisely to match whatever your daily intake is, so if you eat less, it slows down and if you eat more it speeds up (to a lesser extend as we get older). The idea is to trick your metabolism into thinking it is getting more food than it is in order to keep your body from shutting down and going into starvation mode.

   My trick is to eat normally all day (especially immediately after a ride) but then eat an early dinner (as early as possible). If possible, substitute the pasta and bread for something like steamed broccoli or asparagus. It’s actually not that bad with a little salt and you’d be surprised how quickly it will fill you up. Don’t worry about the portion size. You’re not going to get fat eating broccoli. Then right before you go to bed make sure to have some sort of low carb protein supplement which you will need to rebuild the muscle that you’ve been tearing down during the day.

   Keep in mind this only applies if your morning ride is less than 2 hours long. If you are going to wake up first thing in the morning and do a long ride, you will have to eat a little more the night before.

   Finally, always eat a little snack before you go for your morning ride. This will get your metabolism switched on so the engine is running and stays running all morning even though all you are giving it is a measly 100 calorie banana or an apple. I often notice that I will bonk faster on a morning ride after eating a small breakfast than if I had eaten nothing at all due to the fact that my metabolism is running faster than had I eaten nothing at all. Green tea is also a great metabolic booster, especially if you haven’t desensitized yourself to caffeine through years of coffee abuse.

   Observe your energy levels on your rides. If you do this right, it should not affect your workouts. If you do it wrong, you will start to notice a lack of energy and decreased workouts. If that happens, just up your calorie intake a bit before your ride. Also, always bring a gel when you ride since while you’re doing this there will always be the possibility of bonking.

10. Q. What is the best software for keeping track of my power data?

    A. I know I’m going to get some flack for this but I prefer to keep track of my own power date and my clients on a simple excel spreadsheet. The spread sheet tells me the date of the ride, the type of interval, the number of intervals and the average power for each interval. Simple, neat, easy to read and easy to track. I understand there is some great software out there that does amazing things, but I prefer to keep my riders from getting caught up in mountains of data to the point that it affects their ability to ride by feel and makes them unable to train if their SRM is in the shop. With this simple graph, I can chart their progress, follow trends in their training and keep on eye out for overtraining or even under training. When it comes to power, I strictly adhere to the old cycling adage of K