Effective cycle training

There are a plethora of cycling blogs, magazines and coaches (myself included) giving good tips on how to train effectively to get fitter, cycle further, faster.

I've also seen catchy headlines "The one way to" "How to get fitter in..." You know the ones.........yes I know my headline did too. #clickbait

In my experience, there is no ONE magical way to train. The real magic comes from focusing on the basics, being consistent and having the ability to override boredom when it hits. <= learn to deal with that and you're winning.

There are some basic ingredients that are critical to understand if you truly want to get the best out of your training to ride up hills quicker or grab the odd KOM or QOM here and there.

You have to think about training both your muscular and cardiovascular engines.

What does that mean exactly?

Muscular adaptions:

Pure strength - the base of your power and muscular economy.

(Generally done in a gym environment lifting heavy)

Muscular and cardiovascular:

Torque - muscle and pedal efficiency

Slow-twitch muscle - aerobic

Intermediate-twitch - tempo

Intermediate and Fast-twitch - explosive, threshold, Vo2 and speed

(All these can be done on a bike in or outside)

Efficient, meaningful training should include working on the muscle types and the full cardiovascular range if you want to get the most out of training to be a stronger, faster cyclist. The secret sauce is what, how, when and dose. Do too much aerobic work you'll be weak and slower than you want. Miss out on strength and you'll lose power making it more likely to be dropped going up hills.

The biggest take-home here is to improve your ability to ride faster, cycle up hills quicker, ride your next sportive with total confidence or claim that KOM or QOM you have to train both your muscular and cardiovascular engines.

Thanks for reading
Simon

Performance & Nutrition Director
2 X Winner of Gym Based PT, and founder of VPCC