Committing to commitment
If you want to be a successful cyclist, you have to find your limits and expand them so you can be the best you can be. Psychological readiness, training and talent are three factors that limit your potential in cycling. The combinations of these three qualities are what make a cyclist better. Regardless of your fitness, strength or skill levels, the difference between winners and losers is your psychological state, especially motivation and determination. If you stand at the start of any race and look at the faces of the racers, you will see who is ready and who is not ready to race and do their best by placing mind over matter.

Potential and talent
Every rider has a certain amount of potential and athletic talent. Part is a gift from your parents and the other part is improvement from training. Regardless of your developed ability and inherited talents, even the most athletic of cyclists will not always win races. Winning is an act of will as much as an act of the body, so you need to think about the mental side of your training as well as the physical. Tough and more motivated ones often out perform unmotivated cyclists.

Commitment
Commitment will bring all of the qualities of being a good cyclist into focus for a competitive cyclist. What you do with your talent is commitment and it answers questions like, “how much training am I willing to go through to prepare for the national championship?” or “during the off season, how hard am I willing to train?” commitment is how mad you want to win.

Ideas to help you
Here are some ideas that can help to enhance your commitment to cycling. Set realistic goals and attainable targets, be tough on yourself, know yourself and have a plan for success.

Think like the best
If you desire to be a good cyclist, you have to think like the best. Have a mindset like, “I am the best and I have to be both tough and tough on myself to be successful.” You have to want success badly enough to give 105% of yourself to attain it. Start NOW, not tomorrow. What are you waiting for start with today’s workout? Use as many resources at your disposal as possible. What kind of support do you have; equipment, coaches, family, friends, etc… how can they all help you in your quest to be the best cyclist you can be?

Concentration
The most important factor psychologically in competition is your cycling concentration. Both coaches and cyclists have agreed upon this. Your ability to focus on the race, the race environment, weather factors, your competitors and changing tactics is key to your success in competition.

Think about what you are doing
Several years ago a study was performed on marathon runners and their thoughts during a competition. As athletes of all levels were conversed with a consistent distinction was observed. The top competitors in a race spent time thinking about what they were doing and how they felt at each stage. This was done almost without exception by the top competitors.

Within yourself
Most all successful cyclists will check various factors within their selves during races. These inner factors include how their fuel supply feels, speed, pedaling RPM, the feelings of their legs and other parts of their body. In comparison, the less accomplished runners whom wish to escape the discomfort and pain tended to think about other responsibilities while competing. These responsibilities may include school, work, family, and other similar responsibilities. A less successful athlete strives to consciously ignore the signals their body is sending to their brain by keeping his mind on responsibilities other than the task at hand. It has been determined by this and other psychological studies that the most successful athletes are best at narrowing their attention under pressure

Focus recovery
Here are some guidelines to help you focus or recover your lost focus: become more connected to what it is that you are trying to focus on during a competition. If your form is where you want your focus then try to concentrate on your shadow. If you are trying to hold a consistent pedaling RPM concentrate on a rhythmic beat or if you are trying to keep up with the rider ahead of you on an incline, pedal stroke for stroke with them. A distraction may only be a distraction if you see it as a distraction. Focus on the race in general and the other competitors if you are beginning to doubt yourself. This way you will take your thoughts away from your pain and suffering to external factors. Do not let the environmental factors of a course lower your performance level. Visualize your less prepared opponents having more troubles than you do. Stay off from the start line for as long as possible. Arrive for the race right before the start gun. This way you will avoid all of the confusion that takes place before the competition start or before a specific stage of a race.

A daily record of your program

You training diary is your daily record of your program progress, successes and failures. In your daily training diary you will track your physical conditioning such as your waking and activity heart rates sleep patterns, morning body weight, your physical feelings during your training and racing and your competition performance. You can buy pre-printed training diaries through catalogs, from the internet or bookstores.

Diary guidelines

In your diary, you will want to:

• Record your training sessions in detail. What distances you worked on, the interval types, your riding partner, if any, the route rode and the environmental and weather condition.
• Record your bedtime and wake time and the time you laid down and woke up from any naps. If you are going to bed late, sleeping less and waking up tired you may be overtraining.
• After you go to the bathroom in the morning, weigh yourself. If you have lost several pounds since the morning before you may be dehydrated and it is important to drink many fluids before you train again. If you continue to lose weight this way over several weeks, it is a strong sign you are over training.
• When you wake up measure your heart rate for 15 seconds and multiply by 4 then write this number down in your diary. If your pulse has raised more than five or six beats per minute in the early morning, you may not have yet recovered from the previous day or you may be getting sick. Do not train hard that day. If your pulse is five or six beats per minute higher in the morning for several days, you may be experiencing a very serious form of overtraining. Take a few days off until your waking pulse rate returns to normal.
• Write down how you feel physically each morning when you wake up. Create a rating scale that will reflect how you feel from, “feeling great and cannot wait to train” to “feeling horrible and do not even want to see a bike”.
• Do not only record your physical feelings but also your mental and emotional feelings and more importantly your goals, focusing on your motivation level. Your goals are an important part of your program and most riders lose sight of their goals. Reaching your goals is a great confidence booster.
• Create a comments area in your training diary. In the comments area you will write down any and all illnesses that you experience, state of well-being, enthusiasm level, motivation level at various points (i.e. practice or competition) in your training, arousal and psych-up levels, race and training conditions and any physical, mental or psychological testing.

Map your success
As with any activity in your life, you cannot know where you are without knowing where you have been. By designing a training diary, you are creating a map that shows where you have been and where you desire to be. Maybe every week or every so many days your training diary should have an occasional summary.

There are three energy sources

The energy sources for cyclists comes from three sources. These three sources are fat, carbohydrates and protein. The fat energy comes through the bloodstream provided by adipose tissue or from the intestines out of the foods you consume. Your fat energy can also be supplied by stored fat in your muscle tissue. Carbohydrate energy is supplied by the liver from your stored glycogen, amino acids that are metabolized, from carbohydrates that have been absorbed by your intestines or from the glycogen stored in your muscle tissue.

Fruit Bars

Heart rate and activity levels

Your heart rate corresponds to you activity level as follows:
Low activity level = 65% of maximum heart rate
Moderate activity level= 75% of maximum heart rate
Maximum activity level = 90% of maximum heart rate

Carbohydrates are metabolized on the basis of your respiratory exchange ratios which were Traditionally believed to be at a much higher rate than they now are believed to be. This ratio is determined by the relative concentrations of the carbon dioxide and oxygen that are expired.

Electrolyte Drink

The newest techniques of calculating this ratio suggest that the fat contribution is greater than anyone had previously been able to determine. Most recent studies show a rate of 85% of your energy is provided by fat at low intensity exercise levels. About half from fat at moderate levels and at high exercise levels about 70% of the energy provided comes from carbohydrates.

Where does your energy come from

Fat from the bloodstream supplies most of your energy at low activity levels and at higher activity levels your fat calories come from fat that is stored in muscle tissue. As your activity level rises fat contributes more absolute energy but less relative. Triglycerides or intramuscular fat energy supplies less than one-third of your energy as that of the glycogen stored in your muscles at a moderate activity level.

At a high activity level the absolute fat contribution dwindles to almost nothing as the stored glycogens take over. Blood fat and glucose levels are contributors to muscle energy supplies even when your activity level is high, but compared to glycogens the contribution levels of fat and glucose are quite limited. If glucose is consumed then the glucose contribution will rise. It is futile to consume fat for energy contribution since the absorption rate is lengthy.

Consume carbohydrates

About 250 calories per hour of consumed carbohydrates may be a factor in muscle energy. If you consume carbohydrates for energy it will reserve your stored levels of glycogen in your muscles. This consumption of carbohydrates will allow your activity level to increase and prolong it for a greater period.

Fruit

Glycogen is the fuel of choice

Although, training can increase the use of muscle fat for energy and the rate for which the body uses the fat in the bloodstream at a given activity level at high activity levels glycogen is the fuel of choice for the body.

The principle of alternating stress and recovery improves the fitness level of an athlete. Stress is applied when the cyclist is required to ride faster than he is used to. The leg and abdominal muscles are worked beyond their limits. The heart muscles are toughened and the leg muscles get stronger. Due to higher oxygen supply to the muscles, some are converted into energy. The recovery part allows the muscles to rehabilitate. The regular training manages the activity of cycling where as the stretching exercises increase the flexibility of the muscles and tendons. Since each participant differs from the other by constitution, the responses given by the athletes vary for the same stress training session. All these changes in muscle activity or heart rate are monitored using high quality equipments during the training sessions.

Polar HRM

Cyclists taking part in modern competitions believe in monitoring own performance assessment. Equipments for power metering, heart rate monitoring and speedometers are very much handy for these professionals. These devices regulate their exercises to be done in specific time and avoid excess stress and strain. They help the cyclists to get feedback on their fitness level so that the coach can rearrange the training schedule for performance enhancement.
The variety of ways equipments can be used for the purpose of monitoring a cyclist’s performance makes the coach and the sports scientist think. They use their imagination to train the athlete at a certain heart rate or within a certain heart rate level. They are able to research as to how power can be utilized in the training so as to enhance the athlete’s performance. They change and experiment with different power outputs to judge the athlete’s performance assessment.

Velomann Speedo/HRM

Here are certain guidelines regarding the variables in the training schedules. The advantages as well as the shortcomings are also narrated. Performance assessment is done in standard environment so that the results are independent of climate, training strategies or terrain conditions. This type of analysis gives pertinent information on a cyclist’s fitness level, endurance training and aerobic capacity. The athletes are protected from over stress and training goals can be stipulated without error. The athletes start recognizing their strengths and weaknesses from the results generated by these equipments. The aim of the training is basically to enhance the athlete’s strength and reduce his drawbacks. As these equipments are expensive, all training centers cannot afford them. These conditions can be simulated outdoors in race environments without the use of these heart rate monitors or power meters.

SRM Power Meter

Setting a Weekly Distance

Training for your cycling season can be very complex and complicated if you don’t have a certain set of goals and schedules worked out before you begin. One of the major problems cyclists encounter when they’re trying to set up a training program is determining how far they plan to ride each day as well as how many kilometers they’re going to ride.

You should have a log book with milestones that you wish to meet within a certain deadline. Your friend may travel five miles in one hour, whereas it may take you an hour and a half to travel the same five miles. So set your goals. You need to work your way up to what the “elite” cyclists can do. Trying to do too much too soon will result in adding unnecessary stress to the body, which can lead to soreness and possible injury. When this happens, it will slow your progress down even more.

Making Your Schedule Count

It’s important to remember that the body reacts to stress in different ways and this should be taken into consideration when setting your cycling schedule. When you begin cycling, set a goal for yourself and try to not go over that goal. In fact, try to stay at the same goal for the first two to three weeks. When you see steady progress without stress, you can consider moving on to the next step on your schedule.

For instance, if one mile per day is what your first goal is, continue doing that for the first couple of weeks, and then increase it to 2 miles per day. Continue this for another couple of weeks. After you have reached you eight week milestone, you can add hill training and base training tempo to your training schedule.

Making Advancements without Injury

If making advancements in fitness is your goal, you need to start your training season with a low amount of distance per week. You cannot expect to begin by training for long distance cycling. and not expect to get injured or very sore.

Nothing will slow down a training season faster than injury; get the list of the most common injuries in cyclists. Another thing to remember is not to set yourself up for failure by setting your goals too high. Also, remember to always warm up before you begin each training session and cool down when you’re done for the day.

There are some very easy and efficient stretches you can do to warm up and cool down. The best way to easily reach your training goals and be ready for competitions is to work slowly but surely. If you feel the schedule you’ve set for yourself is coming too easily, increase it slightly and gradually. When the real cycling season begins, you’ll be glad you stuck to your training schedule.

Training comes in many forms and phases. You’ll hear about flexibility training, cross training, strength training, base training, etc. Another method that many are considering as part of their training for cycling as well as running is tempo training or tempo workouts. Athletes are often using tempo training as opposed to interval training.

What are indeed tempo workouts?

According to the dictionary, the term tempo run means, “a rate of performance at a steady pace”. This description is very accurate when used in reference to tempo workouts. Tempo workouts are when you run or pedal at a steady pace using about 70-80% of your maximum aerobic capacity.

Tempo workouts help you in training by helping your body get used to go going at a steady pace for a certain amount of time, a quality that can help you during competition. They are also great for conditioning the mind to believe and accept that you will be going as a specified speed for a specified distance in a race or competition.

Sample of Tempo Workout

An example of a tempo workout may help you to better understand them and how they can be beneficial to your training program. The use of a heart rate monitor is part of the tempo workouts. Knowing what your normal maximum heart rate is will be helpful because you can perform your tempo work at an intensity that’s 75-85% of your maximum heart rate. Tempo workouts should not be put in as part of your base training, but rather after you’ve been training for 6 to 8 weeks. The tempo rides should also be done is as low as possible of a gear. The best tempo workouts are those done outdoors.

For a novice cyclist, a good tempo workout would consist of a 10 to 20 minute warm up followed by 3 tempo workout sessions 10 minutes long. After each 10-minute session, pedal at an easy pace for 3 minutes. Follow the last one up with 10 to 20 minutes of cooling down. Regardless of what kind of training program or session you’re in, don’t forget to always warm up before starting and cool down when you’re finished.

Tempo workouts can easily be integrated into your training plan. You’ll find that the pace at which tempo workouts have your pedaling will be far more beneficial than if you went at an easy pace all the time. One reason for this is that they come very close to using the paces you’ll be using during competitions. Another reason is that when you mix up the speeds and paces when you race, you’re at a lesser chance of becoming injured than if you raced all at one speed.

Long-term planning and scheduling

If you have long-term schedule and plans in your training, it is called periodization. In this type of planning for the year and scheduling, each period of your scheduled training program will prepare you for the next, more advanced period on your schedule. This will perpetuate until you have peaked at the time of your most important competition of the season. Some trainers have used periodization for several years with the athletes they train. If you vary the volume, the intensity and recovery period in various scheduled periods of your schedule in a pre-meditated and systematic manner you can maximize your level of performance at the same time as you reduce the risks of over-training or injury.

A Yearly Cycling Training Plan

You need to first look at your competition schedule for the season or year. After you have researched your years competition schedule you can create a yearly training schedule and plan that is periodized for your competitions. When you are planning for the year, you will want to periodontist the season by determining the specific training periods. These periods may include your general preparation periods for the season and competitions, specialization for the specific competitions, competition in general, and your transition periods. Decide when the peak points are in your season for various levels of competition. During various levels of competition, you may want to peak mentally, emotionally, tactically and physically. These times will include your yearend championship season.

The Macrocycle

The macrocycle is what many cyclists have termed the annual training season. A macrocycle is a complete bike training plan or cycle. Your macrocycle begins when your training commences and peaks at the time of a major competition. The macrocycle then continues through the transitional and recovery periods.

If you have solid information about your strengths and goals and make a yearly training schedule accordingly, you will have the best opportunity to create a well-planned training schedule. Only a well-planned training schedule will allow you to work in specific training periods known as periods. You will want to divide your yearly training schedule into periods to get the best training possible and reach the best competition results. Training is typically split into three separate periods for cyclists.

These three periods are preparation, competition, and transition. Transition is often referred to as active rest. Within each period, you will want to control the volume, intensity, frequency, and skill work of your training. This will help to direct you to your peak performance level.

Many factors go into the structuring of systematic training for cyclists during off-season and in-season periods. Base training is the fundamental process of creating endurance in the cyclist for further strenuous training sessions. Preliminary competition training is the intermediate stage that increases the intensity to a considerable level.

Late competition training is the final tempo workout interspersed with recovery sessions that develops maximum capacity in the cyclist to face the competition.  When the races are over, the cyclist undergoes the fourth phase which consists of recovery sessions. Here he is expected to practice short and light riding schedules along with stretching and weight training program.

The body constitution of the cyclists varies according to food habits and genetic factors. So the same lengths of schedules cannot be prescribed generally for all the cyclists. The cyclist should take guidelines and plan layout from his instructor before adhering to the scheme. Base training is the first step taken up by the cyclist and it consists of high volume and high frequency of cycling. During this training, the intensity is kept at lower level so as to prevent injuries to the tendons.

Easy rides for long distances should be combined with cross training like running or swimming mainly forms the structure of base training. The cyclist should never overexert or intensify to cover the distance in a short time. Knowing his maximum heart rate, the participant should ride to the extent of reaching around 60% of his maximum heart rate. He should ride on a lower gear with a rhythmic 110 rpm covering uphill and downhill terrains.

By this, he overcomes the difficulty of bike handling. Training with light weights, stretching and circuit training should be mixed proportionately with the base training program to achieve astounding results. He should keep his cycling frequency to the optimum level to maintain the muscle tone.

By base training, the cyclist’s aerobic capacity increases to a large extent meaning that his lungs take in more oxygen for the blood to carry to all the muscles of the body. Excess fat in the body is utilized for conversion into energy. The posture, the form and the technique of the practitioner improve to a great extent. He develops a strong muscular endurance by base training. His cardiovascular system is brought to a higher fitness level and lactate threshold is increased. By systematic training, the cyclist develops great potential for competing in the races.