Dealing with regular heart rate variability

Here are few ways in which the HR varies:

• Consecutive days of rigorous workout decrease the glycogen level which affects the HR.

• The consecutive high intensity programs increases the blood plasma which is directly correlated to a low HR.

• Trainings should be conducted in a lower altitude zones because places on higher altitude increase the HR.

• Medications like albuterol, antihistamines can lift up your HR & beta-blockers (hypertensives) can do the opposite.

• The HR can also increase if an athlete is on a rest during a season.

• Fatigue or tiredness out of trainings or races can influence your HR also.

• Addiction of caffeine can also increase the athlete’s HR.

Variable zones can assist you greatly. After determining zones you can control the HR for all intense trainings. Zones are enabled with buffering system which allows limited variations in HR. You can also use intensity indicators while training.

For example –If the workout intensity of 7 or 8 in RPE scale raises your HR then drop down immediately to compensate your HR level. One of the best ways to control your HR is by analyzing its response for few days over training sessions & environmental changes. Your study of the correlation between heart rate and RPE will make you aware of your HR variability.

Making Changes To Your Equipment

As I said, you’ll be using your equipment the most during the base training period and the actual cycling season. The cycling season, however, is not the time to be buying or trying new equipment. Cyclists attempting to use new equipment during the racing season often find themselves getting injured or very sore, not to mention get poor performance dues to unfamiliarity with their new equipment.

Your body has a way of adapting to the equipment you are currently using. It’s similar to the old couch in your living room or the old pair of gym shoes. They may be old and beat up, but your body and feet have adapted to the feel of them. We’ve all heard the saying about “comfortable as an old pair of shoes”. The same goes for your bicycle equipment.

The Right Time For The Right Change

The best time to try out new equipment is during the off-season and the base training period. In fact, during the off-season, you’re probably going to find some excellent prices on new and used cycling equipment. You’ll have plenty of time to try the new equipment out and see how it feels. Our muscles are trained to perform well with certain equipment in certain positions. When we make changes to these positions, whether it’s a different bicycle frame, seat post, pedal or handlebars, our bodies need time to adapt to the change.

You may even have a setback in your training while your body and muscle groups attempt to adjust to the new changes. This is why it’s important to get the new equipment in the off-season so you have time to adjust before the training season. This way, when the training season arrives, you’ll be ready to start training without having to worry about adjustments.

Changing Your Wheels

Don’t underestimate the importance of wheels to your bicycle as they are the most important piece of equipment for your bike. Replacing your wheels will always give you better performance so if you feel you want some changes, make new wheels your first new change.

You’ll have your choice of the standard wheels, composite tri-spoke wheels, aerodynamic rim or aerodynamic spoke wheels or the disk wheel. While standard rims are best for training, you’ll do much better with aerodynamics for the actual racing. Composite tri-spoke and disk wheels are best used for time trials. If you can afford them, you may want to try each of them for your own personal preference.

Riding nutrition

There are four nutrition periods for a cyclist when planning their cycling nutrition. These four periods include training, pre-race, post-race and non-race. The priorities in your nutrition intake for cycling are as follows: water, calories and electrolytes. Other vitamins and minerals have importance, but only during ultra-distance riding. On the contrary, there are not any special requirements in a cyclist’s nutrition for rides under an hour. You will only need to be concerned with fluids and calories for competition and training over an hour. If you compete in an ultra-distance event, you must also concern yourself with electrolytes. Although, water, calories, and electrolytes are the normal order of importance any weak link in your nutrition may be a performance-limiter. For example, a lack of sodium may limit your performance even if your water and energy levels are up to adequate levels.

In order of priority

Consider this analogy; for a 40-kilometer “time trial”, the order of priorities may be:

• fitness of the rider
• bicycle-rider aerodynamics
• road friction
• bicycle mechanics

This is only a relative order of importance for the time spent in preparing for an event. In turn, if your bottom bracket seizes and even if you are in the best fitness of any rider in the trials you will not produce a great trial time.

Fluid losses

The primary sources for fluid loss are sweat and urine. The kidneys can rid the body of extreme excesses of fluids and can concentrate or dilute the urine with electrolytes if the body feels there is a need. In the hot dry climate of a desert it is possible to lose as much as 3.5 liters of fluids per hour. In sweat production there is both a fitness and acclimatization effect. In both fitness and acclimatization to heat and humidity, sweat is produced at lower body temperatures or in other words, you sweat more easily. The electrolytes concentrations in sweatis decreased when the sweat production is going through acclimatization and training. In comparison, females sweat less than males at the same body temperatures.

Carbohydrates may not be important

If you are competing in an event longer than one hour or longer than one half an hour in hotter climates it is very important to give your body adequate water replacement. Carbohydrate or electrolyte intake may not be as necessary for energy or balancing your losses of minerals in events under one hour, they may aid your body with hydration by increasing the rate of water uptake by the gastrointestinal tract. However, you will notice that during a 40-k time trial the cyclists with the best times do not drink water or fluids eve in desert climates. Although, in races when maximum effort is needed the body’s de-hydration will worsen your performance level a small amount.

Monitor you fluid loss

Although, no method of monitoring your body’s fluid loss is perfect, using a bathroom scale to monitor your weight can help monitor your status. Most of your weight loss is fluids although, you can lose fat and muscle weight during a multi-day event. Even though one quart of water weighs about 2 pounds a common bathroom scale can be misleading. On the average, glycogen binds three times its weight in water. Some weight loss in multi-day events means a depletion of stored glycogen rather than a hydration status since glycogen depletion is common in multi-day events. You body normally stores about 500 grams of glycogens. Usually no more than about 4.5 pounds of weight loss can be attributed to glycogen depletion.

Be sure you rest

If you cycle two times per day every day for a short amount of time you may see benefits. This type of training will not be of an advantage for long periods. This type of training is not advantageous for long periods because your body needs time to rest, recover and build strength and endurance.

Schedule rest

Make sure that you schedule rest in your training schedule so that your body has time to recover from the periods of training. The rest time also allows your body to make adaptations for the long term based on how long your rest periods are scheduled.

Rest will help your body adapt

After you have taken your body through a competition phase in your season you may decide to schedule a six to eight week rest period in your routine. You may then decide to place regular scheduled short rest periods on your season schedule. These rest periods may be anywhere from one to three days long. The regular scheduled rest within your season schedule will help you to adapt your body to your cycling routine.

It will take a long time to reach your potential so do not expect to reach your potential in a few weeks or even the first season of training and competition. The only way to reach your potential, become a better cyclist and make the needed adaptations is to practice persistently the systematic principles of training from season to season.

Enjoyment is as important as fitness

Performance and fitness are not the only goals you should have for your training. You will also want to strive to reach a level of enjoyment and satisfaction. If you focus too much on a distance goal or an average speed you are risking the advancement of your overall fitness. If you try to cycle too far, too fast or too soon you may be submitting your body to too much stress. It may be more important to take a day of rest than to push yourself to continue when you begin to feel fatigued.

You will gain more improvement from a time of rest than you will gain from pushing your body through a period of fatigue. Although we will discuss the benefits of over training in other articles, the prevention of over training is also very important. If you over train incorrectly you can place a tremendous amount of undue stress on your body. You must always keep cycling as an enjoyable activity. If it becomes more work than enjoyment you will not reach your highest potential and you may no longer desire to cycle.

Although, nothing replaces cycling as a form of training, cross training is a great way to improve your cycling abilities, increasing your aerobic endurance and make your body more efficient, faster and stronger. Every type of physical activity from basketball and swimming to weight lifting and golf can be used in a cross training routine. Some activities are better suited to be used for cross training than others are.

Mental cross training

If you want to become a better cyclist, you need to cross train your mind, not only your body. The athlete that posses’ superior psychological strength is believed to have a hidden advantage over other athletes and competitors. If you think positively at all times and remain goal oriented you can easily train your mind and gain this psychological strength advantage.

If your training becomes stale and boring, dig up old equipment and use it. Take the speedometer off your bike, do not worry about the distance you have traveled or how long you have trained. You may want to train, just to train for a few days.

The psychological edge

Another method of psychological training is to repeat a word or phrase repeatedly to yourself or even aloud while you train. This is most helpful at times when your training is at a difficult point. You can even create a rhythmic phrase or set of words that can be recited as you pedal. These words or phrase can be to help give you encouragement and to improve your bike endurance while training.

Sometimes the encouragement or strength gained from the recital of a set of words or a phrase can be “just what the doctor ordered” to help you over the top. Your body will respond to what your thoughts tell it to do. If you become your own personal motivator, you are more likely to perform better.

Just like a coach whom yells at you while they train you, you can coach yourself and talk yourself through your training sessions. After you have decided on a word, set of words or a phrase to use for self-motivation you can practice motivating yourself. After your practice has become habitual, your body will respond almost instantly to your self-motivation. Your self-motivating will signal to your body that it is time to work.

When training for your cycling career, there are many stresses involved. Although we normally think of stress as a negative factor, in cycling stress is to be expected. However, it’s important to avoid training stresses before the body is ready. If you try to do too much before you’ve reached the fitness level that you’re ready for, you not only can cause injury, but may decrease your chance of ever meeting your full cycling potential for the season.

Learning About Stress Levels

When your body is in training for cycling season, it takes from six to eight weeks to move from one stress level to another. By stress level we mean, a level of fitness. For instance, when the training season for cycling begins, your goal is to ride 2 miles per day.

The two miles per day is your first stress level because your body is getting enough stress to perform for you. When you decide to increase your goal to 4 miles per day, you are increasing a stress level. This is why it’s important to not move to a higher stress level until your body has had plenty of time to adjust to the current level.

The last three weeks of the current stress period, you may want to try a new stress level one or two days per week and see how you feel. If you don’t notice a big difference, you can be assured that your body has reached a plateau and is ready to move to the next stress level.

Principle of Diminishing Return

Training may not be as simple to understand as you think. You body will not necessarily benefit more from a harder or longer level of stress. A better way of putting this is when your level of fitness increases and your training stress level also increases, you will actually get less out of the increase.

If you’re starting a new stress level of 4 miles per week and reach 50% of your potential, adding another 4 miles per week as a new stress level , which totals 8 miles per week after a few weeks will not provide you with 100% achievement. Adding more volume to your sessions also does not increase your fitness because you’re increasing your risk of injury, which will only set you back. Repetitive injuries are more commonly seen when your try to increase your training stress too quickly. This is why it’s very important to progress slower but surer.

For example you may start with a push-up station followed by a hamstring curl station, then a station where you jump rope followed by a dip station then abdominal station, then leg press station ending at a station where you will ride a stationary bike for 5 minutes. With the previous circuit example you would spend from one to two minutes at each station going directly from station to station until you have cycled through every station.

After performing the rotation two to three times you have completed that many sets of each exercise. At the same time as completing two to three sets of each exercise you will benefit from the aerobic exercise of the continuous cycling through the circuit. Instead of a set amount of time at each station you may decide to perform a set of repetitions at each station.

Vary the station activities

Try not to stress the same muscle groups at two consecutive stations in your circuit training rotation. It should cover strength, flexibility and aerobic activity so be sure to vary the type of activities that will be performed on your circuit rotation. It will increase your general capacity to work by improving your body’s ability to tolerate a gradual increase in muscular fatigue.

Decrease body fat

Circuit training will enhance your overall body strength including the ability of your muscles, tendons and ligaments to recuperate; the stability and integrity of your joints; the strength of your body’s bone structure and your bone density. Through expending high levels of energy, this training will increase your lean muscle ass by a moderate amount and decrease your body fat content.

Strength, mobility and stamina

You only need to perform circuit training exercises two or three times every week to gain the maximum benefits it offers. Whether you are a cyclist or any other type of athlete your strength, mobility and stamina will be greatly improved when circuit training is included in 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.

Importance of Good Training Methods

Most of us remember when we first learned how to ride a bicycle as well as the old saying, “it’s like riding a bike-you never forget how”. As true as this statement is, there is a lot more involved in cycling today than merely taking our bicycles for a short ride to a friend’s house.

Cyclists today are riding much more complex bikes and for much further distances. Therefore, there is a lot more required in the training than there was when we were children. The type of training you have will determine how you will perform, not just in long distance rides but competitions as well.

Learning What Training You’ll Need

In order to get the most out of your training requires knowing your body and how it will adapt to certain conditions and training methods. It’s also important to realize if your body has any weak spots. Once you determine these things, you’ll be able to have a successful training program and a successful training program is one that works for you as well as with you.

A systematic type of training program will begin with a base phase, which will get your ready for your actual training and performances. The training will help your body adapt to increasing amounts of stress and workouts, which will promote a higher and more productive level of performance.

In addition to a good training program, you also need an alert mind, good nutrition and the right equipment. Training should be consistent and continued. It cannot be a thing that you do now and again when you feel you need it or are in the mood. The entire purpose of a good training program is one that will get you through the entire preseason and make you ready for the season in all aspects.

Building A Training Program

In order to have a successful training program, you need to keep in mind the three major components of the program: volume, intensity and frequency. These are a necessity for a successful training program, although each cyclist will react differently to them.

Volume will tell you the amount of distance you are covering in a certain amount of time. You should have a goal set of where you hope to be at the end of the training period.

The intensity that you have in your program will determine how serious you are about being successful and will determine your chances of meeting your goals. If you have specific equipment like VO2 max testing equipment, heart rate monitor or power meter, you can measure the amount of your intensity.

The frequency refers to the number of training sessions you’ll have to help meet your goals. Frequency also helps you to see how much work you have accomplished in a certain amount of time. Each of these three things should be used together to help you build a good training session or program.

General Bike Training

You need fitness to ride a bike, any bike be it road, track or MTB, the basic fitness is the same, but with obvious specialization for each different discipline of the sport. If you are intending to ride some long distance endurance off-road races, then you will need to spend a lot of time in the saddle, nearly as much time as you intend to race. Most, if not all, mountain bikers train on the road, either on a road bike or on their mountain bike with set of slick road tires fitted for better handling and comfort.

With on the road training you can control the different aspects of your work-out; intervals can be measured as can the longer distance rides. Power training can be done either on or off road, but it is more scientific and controlled on the road, not to mention the safety aspect, if you are making an effort on boulder or on a loose surface then accidents can happen, this is less likely on the road.

For a mountain bike training plan you can follow a road training program up a point, that point is where bike fitness has to be combined with mountain bike fitness training, but to start with you must concentrate on that general bike training.

Long Rides

You need to build up to doing around about four hour bike rides, with or without stops, this gets you used to being in the saddle for the amount of time you maybe racing for or a good part of it if you are intending entering enduro’s. These hours are best done with friends with the same aims and similar fitness, one rider who is stronger and wants show everyone can ruin the group’s cohesion. Long steady road rides over different terrain is a great way to lose weight and strengthen the whole body and help your bike riding ability. Long rides should be

Interval Training

Interval training can be undertaken on or off road, but as we have talked about before it’s more controllable on the road. Pick a hill that is rideable on a bigish gear and ride it as hard as you can, this is most easily gauged with a pulse monitor and you should be making efforts at over 85% of maximum, this is mountain bike strength training. Speed intervals are also very important for mountain bike racing as a fast start or having the ability to jump past another rider is very important.

Speed training is best done on a short stretch of road, sprint as hard as you can to take your pulse up again to over 85%, do this short interval as often as you can until your pulse will not recover or your speed drops to far that you are not training fast enough, when this happens its time to go home.

Off-Road Mountain Bike Training

This is what it is; training for mountain biking on an off-road course, if you are lucky to have a purpose made MTB circuit in your area, then this is the place to go. Otherwise you need to use a course that you know well with as many different types of terrain as you can find. If you have a circuit with a hard climb this is perfect for interval training as you can make your effort on the hill and rest on the descent, be very careful, as you get tired you can make mistakes and fall. If you are slowing and getting tired its time to go home.

Fast fire tracks and tricky wooded sections are a must for training yourself for bike handling, one of the best mountain bike training tips you will ever receive is that if you are descending through a forest between trees, don’t ever look straight at any of the trees, if you do this you are bound to crash into it, this is the same for any obstacles that you might come across on a descent.

Mountain Bike Training Tips

Practicing all different kinds of conditions will help you later in races or on rides, the more you know how to handle your bike the better. Mud can have some very different properties form very slippy to sticky and clogging. Wet mud can be impossible to ride on and can be worse than ice and has to be taken carefully, where as the thick stuff just slows you down and needs lots of strength to push through.

Rough tracks with boulders and different size stones need to given a lot of respect, on a hill if you are climbing out of the saddle your back wheel will slip, there are different ways of dealing with this, it can be best to either keep your weight over the back wheel as you climb standing up or change down to a smaller gear and ride up on the saddle.

Cornering is an art on a mountain bike on the different terrain and conditions, if you have a grassy bend on a descent you will slide and fall, this where you need to keep the bike under control with the brakes and your balance. On a sharp graven bend you can lock up the rear wheel and skid round and if it is really tight you can brake with the front wheel and bounce the rear wheel round.

All these “tricks” (and more) can be learnt and practiced and you can discover more bike handling tips and discover the best mountain bike training programs for you and improve both your fitness and your bike skills.