Bicyclist's Bible
Dedicated to Dirk - my friend, my training partner, my mentor, my student, my son
Preface to the Russian edition
I had a chance to talk with the author of The Bicyclist's Bible, Joe Friel. He impressed me as a very experienced and modern coach: everything I said about training, he knew and gave wise advice. His book covers the full range of training options for cycling professionals. It's good that such a manual appeared in Russian: it will be very informative for our coaches and athletes, because the Russian (and in fact Soviet) cycling school has changed little in the last twenty years.
I can say that this is a complete cyclist's guide. While reading, I was surprised that it already analyzed and described the methods of work (physical, psychological, technical), which took me a long time to understand, despite the fact that I was already a professional. I came to understand many things by trial and error, and here it all is already in finished form. Enjoy!
P.S. See you on the track.
Mikhail Ignatiev,
champion of the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens in the points race,
bronze medalist at the 2008 Beijing Olympics,
multiple champion world junior (road and track)
Foreword by Tudor Bompa
In 1963, while working at the Romanian Institute of Sports, I was asked to be the coach of a promising young javelin thrower. Having studied the training programs traditional for that time, I came to the conclusion that something was missing in the methods of training athletes. V winter period athletes followed the "ancient" program of non-specialized general physical training, in summer it was the turn of the competitive stage, and autumn was a transitional period. A little later, Soviet specialists called this type of preparation periodization. I added missing links to this program, which allowed me to more clearly build a sequence of exercises for developing strength and endurance in relation to each training period. Subsequently, I called my techniques “strength periodization” and “endurance periodization”.
Beginning in the mid-1960s, my principles of periodization were adopted by Romanian coaches and their Eastern European counterparts. This allowed their students to dominate in many sports at the world championships for several decades and Olympic Games. Today, these principles are applied by leading European athletes and are gaining more and more popularity in the United States.
In his book The Cyclist's Bible, Joe Friel provides every cyclist with a comprehensive set of tools necessary to create and use a periodization program in accordance with the principles I laid down. The level of his professional understanding of this problem is very high: I spent a lot of time in communication with Joe and know him as a highly experienced trainer, an excellent mentor, a true professional in the field of periodization. Unlike many other specialists, Joe has been studying various methods periodization, analyzes various training schedules. This allowed him to understand which training methods would best suit the goals of cyclists and other endurance athletes.
Perhaps The Cyclist's Bible is the most comprehensive book on cycling. Despite its deep scientific background, it is written in simple language. The book will allow you to train as systematically as world-class cyclists do, and if you carefully follow the recommendations given in it, you will undoubtedly improve your results.
In 1995, when I began work on the first edition of The Cyclist's Bible, I viewed this assignment as a challenge to myself. This was my first book, and I was sure that only a few copies of the future edition would find their readers. My goal at that time was not to sell a huge circulation, but rather to write down my own methods and philosophy of training for the benefit of the cyclists with whom I then worked as a coach. I knew that you can truly understand something only when you try to teach it to another person. This is what led to the creation of the Bicyclist's Bible.
Today, fourteen years later, this book is still relevant. Every day, cyclists around the world come to me with a lot of interesting questions. The publication of the first book spurred work on two subsequent books (The Triathlete's Training Bible and The Mountain Biker's Training Bible), as well as a website (www.TrainingPeaks.com) launched in 2000 to make the described in the book of training methods and related practical tools accessible to everyone. I have discussed the concepts in this book with thousands of athletes from different countries and I never cease to be amazed at how well it has been received in the cycling world and the impact it has had on so many readers and their sport.
We offer you the fourth edition of the Bicyclist's Bible, which contains many clarifications and additions. Not a single chapter of the book was left unattended. Sports science has come a long way in the last few years, and I've updated this edition with the latest and most reliable information. The book contains the results of research that allowed me to significantly better understand a number of issues related to cycling and improve my coaching skills. In addition, over the years I have constantly made some changes in my methods of training athletes, which gave nice results. It also forced me to make changes to the original text of the book. A number of sections have been updated to answer the many questions that athletes have asked me over the years. Athletes today are just as eager as they were when my book first went out of print to understand how they can improve their performance. They continue to support me, ask a lot of questions about my training methods and offer a huge amount of new ideas. The work on the Bicyclist's Bible gradually turned for me into an endless, pleasant and interesting journey into the world of the unknown.
And although many additions have been made to the fourth edition of the book, its basic principle, which was stated in the preface to the first edition, remains the same - “I offer you this book in the hope that you will become a better racing driver and someday return to me to teach me what you have learned in your training."
Joe Friel
Introduction
How should you plan heavy exercise? How to choose the best way to train for the days leading up to important races? How many kilometers should be driven before starting speed exercises? Is it right to ride and lift weights on the same day? How long should recovery skating be? What should be done to make climbing easier?
These are just a few of the questions I hear almost daily from competitive cyclists, smart and motivated people (I swear the same could be said for you). All of these people have been cycling and running for three or more years and have made remarkable strides in improving their fitness. In the first two years of training, competition seemed like an adventure to them, they usually showed good results in almost all the races in which they participated. Now, with the transition to a new, higher category, everything has changed. They can no longer wait for improvements through more voluminous, active and hard training. Athletes find themselves in a situation where they have much more questions than answers.
Bicyclist's Bible
Dedicated to Dirk - my friend, my training partner, my mentor, my student, my son
Preface to the Russian edition
I had a chance to talk with the author of The Bicyclist's Bible, Joe Friel. He impressed me as a very experienced and modern coach: everything I talked about about training, he knew and gave wise advice. His book covers the full range of training options for cycling professionals. It's good that such a manual appeared in Russian: it will be very informative for our coaches and athletes, because the Russian (and in fact Soviet) cycling school has changed little in the last twenty years.
I can say that this is a complete cyclist's guide. While reading, I was surprised that it already analyzed and described the methods of work (physical, psychological, technical), which took me a long time to understand, despite the fact that I was already a professional. I came to understand many things by trial and error, and here it all is already in finished form. Enjoy!
P.S. See you on the track.
Mikhail Ignatiev,
champion of the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens in the points race,
bronze medalist at the 2008 Beijing Olympics,
multiple world junior champion (road and track)
Foreword by Tudor Bompa
In 1963, while working at the Romanian Institute of Sports, I was asked to be the coach of a promising young javelin thrower. Having studied the training programs traditional for that time, I came to the conclusion that something was missing in the methods of training athletes. In winter, athletes followed the "ancient" program of non-specialized general physical training, in summer it was the turn of the competitive stage, and autumn was a transitional period. A little later, Soviet specialists called this type of preparation periodization. I added missing links to this program, which allowed me to more clearly build a sequence of exercises for developing strength and endurance in relation to each training period. Subsequently, I called my techniques “strength periodization” and “endurance periodization”.
Beginning in the mid-1960s, my principles of periodization were adopted by Romanian coaches and their Eastern European counterparts. This allowed their students to dominate in many sports at the World Championships and the Olympic Games for several decades. Today, these principles are applied by leading European athletes and are gaining more and more popularity in the United States.
In his book The Cyclist's Bible, Joe Friel provides every cyclist with a comprehensive set of tools necessary to create and use a periodization program in accordance with the principles I laid down. The level of his professional understanding of this problem is very high: I spent a lot of time in communication with Joe and know him as a highly experienced trainer, an excellent mentor, a true professional in the field of periodization. Unlike many other specialists, Joe has been studying various periodization techniques for many years, analyzing various training schedules. This allowed him to understand which training methods would best suit the goals of cyclists and other endurance athletes.
Perhaps The Cyclist's Bible is the most comprehensive book on cycling. Despite its deep scientific background, it is written in simple language. The book will allow you to train as systematically as world-class cyclists do, and if you carefully follow the recommendations given in it, you will undoubtedly improve your results.
In 1995, when I began work on the first edition of The Cyclist's Bible, I viewed this assignment as a challenge to myself. This was my first book, and I was sure that only a few copies of the future edition would find their readers. My goal at that time was not to sell a huge circulation, but rather to write down my own methods and philosophy of training for the benefit of the cyclists with whom I then worked as a coach. I knew that you can truly understand something only when you try to teach it to another person. This is what led to the creation of the Bicyclist's Bible.
Today, fourteen years later, this book is still relevant. Every day, cyclists around the world come to me with a lot of interesting questions. The publication of the first book spurred work on two subsequent books (The Triathlete's Training Bible and The Mountain Biker's Training Bible), as well as a website (www.TrainingPeaks.com) launched in 2000 to make the described in the book of training methods and related practical tools accessible to everyone. I have discussed the concepts in this book with thousands of athletes around the world and am amazed at how well it has been received in the cycling world and the impact it has had on so many readers and their sport.
We offer you the fourth edition of the Bicyclist's Bible, which contains many clarifications and additions. Not a single chapter of the book was left unattended. Sports science has come a long way in the last few years, and I've updated this edition with the latest and most reliable information. The book contains the results of research that allowed me to significantly better understand a number of issues related to cycling and improve my coaching skills. In addition, over the years I have constantly made some changes in my methods of training athletes, which gave good results. It also forced me to make changes to the original text of the book. A number of sections have been updated to answer the many questions that athletes have asked me over the years. Athletes today are just as eager as they were when my book first went out of print to understand how they can improve their performance. They continue to support me, ask a lot of questions about my training methods and offer a huge amount of new ideas. The work on the Bicyclist's Bible gradually turned for me into an endless, pleasant and interesting journey into the world of the unknown.
And although many additions have been made to the fourth edition of the book, its basic principle, which was stated in the preface to the first edition, remains the same - “I offer you this book in the hope that you will become a better racing driver and someday return to me to teach me what you have learned in your training."
Joe Friel
Introduction
How should heavy exercise be planned? How to choose the best way to train for the days leading up to important races? How many kilometers should be driven before starting speed exercises? Is it right to ride and lift weights on the same day? How long should recovery skating be? What should be done to make climbing easier?
These are just a few of the questions I hear almost daily from competitive cyclists, smart and motivated people (I swear the same could be said for you). All of these people have been cycling and running for three or more years and have made remarkable strides in improving their fitness. In the first two years of training, competition seemed like an adventure to them, they usually showed good results in almost all the races in which they participated. Now, with the transition to a new, higher category, everything has changed. They can no longer wait for improvements through more voluminous, active and hard training. Athletes find themselves in a situation where they have much more questions than answers.
The purpose of this book is to give you answers to questions related to organization. training process and therefore help you show better results in competitions. The answers will not always be as simple and unambiguous as you might like. Although sports science has come a long way over the past thirty years, the training process continues to be an art in many ways.
Joe Friel
Dedicated to Dirk - my friend, my training partner, my mentor, my student, my son
Preface to the Russian edition
I had a chance to talk with the author of The Bicyclist's Bible, Joe Friel. He impressed me as a very experienced and modern coach: everything I talked about about training, he knew and gave wise advice. His book covers the full range of training options for cycling professionals. It's good that such a manual appeared in Russian: it will be very informative for our coaches and athletes, because the Russian (and in fact Soviet) cycling school has changed little in the last twenty years.
I can say that this is a complete cyclist's guide. While reading, I was surprised that it already analyzed and described the methods of work (physical, psychological, technical), which took me a long time to understand, despite the fact that I was already a professional. I came to understand many things by trial and error, and here it all is already in finished form. Enjoy!
P.S. See you on the track.
Mikhail Ignatiev,
champion of the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens in the points race,
bronze medalist at the 2008 Beijing Olympics,
multiple world junior champion (road and track)
Foreword by Tudor Bompa
In 1963, while working at the Romanian Institute of Sports, I was asked to be the coach of a promising young javelin thrower. Having studied the training programs traditional for that time, I came to the conclusion that something was missing in the methods of training athletes. In winter, athletes followed the "ancient" program of non-specialized general physical training, in summer it was the turn of the competitive stage, and autumn was a transitional period. A little later, Soviet specialists called this type of preparation periodization. I added missing links to this program, which allowed me to more clearly build a sequence of exercises for developing strength and endurance in relation to each training period. Subsequently, I called my techniques “strength periodization” and “endurance periodization”.
Beginning in the mid-1960s, my principles of periodization were adopted by Romanian coaches and their Eastern European counterparts. This allowed their students to dominate in many sports at the World Championships and the Olympic Games for several decades. Today, these principles are applied by leading European athletes and are gaining more and more popularity in the United States.
In his book The Cyclist's Bible, Joe Friel provides every cyclist with a comprehensive set of tools necessary to create and use a periodization program in accordance with the principles I laid down. The level of his professional understanding of this problem is very high: I spent a lot of time in communication with Joe and know him as a highly experienced trainer, an excellent mentor, a true professional in the field of periodization. Unlike many other specialists, Joe has been studying various periodization techniques for many years, analyzing various training schedules. This allowed him to understand which training methods would best suit the goals of cyclists and other endurance athletes.
Perhaps The Cyclist's Bible is the most comprehensive book on cycling. Despite its deep scientific background, it is written in simple language. The book will allow you to train as systematically as world-class cyclists do, and if you carefully follow the recommendations given in it, you will undoubtedly improve your results.
Dr. Tudor Bompa
In 1995, when I began work on the first edition of The Cyclist's Bible, I viewed this assignment as a challenge to myself. This was my first book, and I was sure that only a few copies of the future edition would find their readers. My goal at that time was not to sell a huge circulation, but rather to write down my own methods and philosophy of training for the benefit of the cyclists with whom I then worked as a coach. I knew that you can truly understand something only when you try to teach it to another person. This is what led to the creation of the Bicyclist's Bible.
Today, fourteen years later, this book is still relevant. Every day, cyclists around the world come to me with a lot of interesting questions. The publication of the first book served as an impetus for work on two subsequent ones (The Triathlete's Training Bible and The Mountain Biker’s Training Bible), as well as a website (www.TrainingPeaks.com) launched in 2000 to make the book’s training methods and related practical tools accessible to everyone. I have discussed the concepts in this book with thousands of athletes around the world and am amazed at how well it has been received in the cycling world and the impact it has had on so many readers and their sport.
We offer you the fourth edition of the Bicyclist's Bible, which contains many clarifications and additions. Not a single chapter of the book was left unattended. Sports science has come a long way in the last few years, and I've updated this edition with the latest and most reliable information. The book contains the results of research that allowed me to significantly better understand a number of issues related to cycling and improve my coaching skills. In addition, over the years I have constantly made some changes in my methods of training athletes, which gave good results. It also forced me to make changes to the original text of the book. A number of sections have been updated to answer the many questions that athletes have asked me over the years. Athletes today are just as eager as they were when my book first went out of print to understand how they can improve their performance. They continue to support me, ask a lot of questions about my training methods and offer a huge amount of new ideas. The work on the Bicyclist's Bible gradually turned for me into an endless, pleasant and interesting journey into the world of the unknown.
And although many additions have been made to the fourth edition of the book, its basic principle, which was stated in the preface to the first edition, remains the same - “I offer you this book in the hope that you will become a better racing driver and someday return to me to teach me what you have learned in your training."
Joe Friel
Introduction
How should heavy exercise be planned? How to choose the best way to train for the days leading up to important races? How many kilometers should be driven before starting speed exercises? Is it right to ride and lift weights on the same day? How long should recovery skating be? What should be done to make climbing easier?
These are just a few of the questions I hear almost daily from competitive cyclists, smart and motivated people (I swear the same could be said for you). All of these people have been cycling and running for three or more years and have made remarkable strides in improving their fitness. In the first two years of training, competition seemed like an adventure to them, they usually showed good results in almost all the races in which they participated. Now, with the transition to a new, higher category, everything has changed. They can no longer wait for improvements through more voluminous, active and hard training. Athletes find themselves in a situation where they have much more questions than answers.
The purpose of this book is to give you answers to questions related to the organization of the training process, and therefore help you perform better in competition. The answers will not always be as simple and unambiguous as you might like. Although sports science has come a long way over the past thirty years, the training process continues to be an art in many ways.
Almost always, my answer to questions about training begins with the words: "It depends on a number of factors." It depends on what exactly you have been doing up to now, how much time you can devote to training. It depends on your personal strengths and weaknesses, on when the most important competitions for you take place. It depends on your age, how long you have been seriously training.
I don't want to scare you, but I need you to understand one thing: there are usually several ways to solve training problems. If you ask ten trainers to answer the questions above, you will probably get ten different answers. And all of them can be true, because there are several ways to organize the training of cyclists. My goal in this book is to help you find the answers to your questions that best fit your unique situation. Therefore, The Cyclist's Bible is based on a range of ideas and concepts presented in each chapter, and reading it carefully will hopefully help you find the right answers to your "why?" question.
In Part I, we will talk about the need for high commitment for self-training cyclists, a training philosophy based on common sense. Chapter 1 describes what it takes to be successful in cycling besides talent. Chapter 2 offers a new perspective on the process of training, which is likely to be contrary to your usual ideas. I hope that The Ten Commandments of the Training Process will make you stop reading for a while and reflect on what it means to train smart.
Part II talks about the scientific basis of the training process. To begin, in Chapter 3, I will describe the most common training management concepts. Chapter 4 will cover the most important aspect workouts - their intensity - and how to treat it correctly. Since the first edition of this book, power meters have been available to athletes, giving us a new way to think about and measure intensity. training loads. Be prepared for the fact that you will have to reconsider everything that you have known so far regarding this important issue.
Part III focuses on the idea of mindful training and provides a framework to help you achieve your goals. Chapter 5 will show you how to test your strengths and weaknesses, while Chapter 6 will show you what performance means in terms of racing.
Part IV is the heart of The Cyclist's Bible. We will follow the same path that I use to create an annual training plan for athletes. Chapter 7 will give a general overview of the planning process. Chapter 8 describes a step-by-step planning procedure in a work diary format. After reading this chapter, you will determine your goals for racing season and ways to achieve them. Chapter 9 puts an end to this process and shows how to schedule exercises for the season as a whole, as well as weekly and daily schedules. In addition, this chapter contains recommendations for a set of appropriate exercises. If you're racing during the season, be sure to read Chapter 10 before you complete your annual training plan. Chapter 11 gives examples of some cyclists' annual plans and explains why they were designed the way they were. These examples may be helpful in the process of creating your plan.
Part V focuses on some aspects of the training process that can affect the annual plan. In chapter 12, I will explain the importance strength training for cyclists, I will describe how to include them in your periodization plan, and give a number of recommendations for some exercises. Chapter 13 shows how stretching can improve performance for cyclists. The specifics of training for women, masters, juniors, and beginners are detailed in Chapter 14. If you belong to one of these groups, then reading this chapter will help you master the planning process described in Chapter 8. Chapter 15 deals with the importance of keeping a training diary. It provides an example of a simple diary format that complements the weekly schedules described in Chapter 9. In Chapter 16, we will discuss proper diet- you will learn a new point of view on how to eat right. The chapter also contains information on nutritional supplements and ergogenic auxiliary substances. Chapter 17 covers how to deal with common training problems that cyclists experience—overtraining, exhaustion, illness, and injury. Chapter 18 talks about an extremely important but often overlooked aspect of training: recovery.
Before I begin my story, I want to warn you about the following - this book is designed primarily for cyclists who are already training and participating in competitions. If you are new to the world of sports and just starting your training, then you need to first of all undergo a medical examination. This is especially important for people over the age of 35 who have not been involved in sports for a long time. Most of the exercises described in the book are related to considerable tension and are designed for people with a high level of physical fitness and riding experience.
While I believe this book will help most cyclists improve their performance, it will not make every reader a champion. It takes more than inspiration and a set of right advice. There is no perfect training program that suits everyone and everyone. Take my recommendations with a pinch of salt and take from this book only what will help you succeed right now. I hope this book will serve as a reliable guide for you for many years to come.
As you can see, The Cyclist's Bible is quite methodical. I hope that the process of analysis and reflection cannot deprive you of the pleasure of riding a bike and participating in competitions. I believe these things are compatible. The greatest pleasure cycling occurs at the moment when you feel ready to take on the challenge, standing on the starting line, or crossing the finish line with triumphantly raised above finished by hand. So let's get started!
Part I. Self Cycling
Dedicated to Dirk - my friend, my training partner, my mentor, my student, my son
Preface to the Russian edition
I had a chance to talk with the author of The Bicyclist's Bible, Joe Friel. He impressed me as a very experienced and modern coach: everything I talked about about training, he knew and gave wise advice. His book covers the full range of training options for cycling professionals. It's good that such a manual appeared in Russian: it will be very informative for our coaches and athletes, because the Russian (and in fact Soviet) cycling school has changed little in the last twenty years.
I can say that this is a complete cyclist's guide. While reading, I was surprised that it already analyzed and described the methods of work (physical, psychological, technical), which took me a long time to understand, despite the fact that I was already a professional. I came to understand many things by trial and error, and here it all is already in finished form. Enjoy!
P.S. See you on the track.
Mikhail Ignatiev,
champion of the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens in the points race,
bronze medalist at the 2008 Beijing Olympics,
multiple world junior champion (road and track)
Foreword by Tudor Bompa
In 1963, while working at the Romanian Institute of Sports, I was asked to be the coach of a promising young javelin thrower. Having studied the training programs traditional for that time, I came to the conclusion that something was missing in the methods of training athletes. In winter, athletes followed the "ancient" program of non-specialized general physical training, in summer it was the turn of the competitive stage, and autumn was a transitional period. A little later, Soviet specialists called this type of preparation periodization. I added missing links to this program, which allowed me to more clearly build a sequence of exercises for developing strength and endurance in relation to each training period. Subsequently, I called my techniques “strength periodization” and “endurance periodization”.
Beginning in the mid-1960s, my principles of periodization were adopted by Romanian coaches and their Eastern European counterparts. This allowed their students to dominate in many sports at the World Championships and the Olympic Games for several decades. Today, these principles are applied by leading European athletes and are gaining more and more popularity in the United States.
In his book The Cyclist's Bible, Joe Friel provides every cyclist with a comprehensive set of tools necessary to create and use a periodization program in accordance with the principles I laid down. The level of his professional understanding of this problem is very high: I spent a lot of time in communication with Joe and know him as a highly experienced trainer, an excellent mentor, a true professional in the field of periodization. Unlike many other specialists, Joe has been studying various periodization techniques for many years, analyzing various training schedules. This allowed him to understand which training methods would best suit the goals of cyclists and other endurance athletes.
Perhaps The Cyclist's Bible is the most comprehensive book on cycling. Despite its deep scientific background, it is written in simple language. The book will allow you to train as systematically as world-class cyclists do, and if you carefully follow the recommendations given in it, you will undoubtedly improve your results.
From the author
In 1995, when I began work on the first edition of The Cyclist's Bible, I viewed this assignment as a challenge to myself. This was my first book, and I was sure that only a few copies of the future edition would find their readers. My goal at that time was not to sell a huge circulation, but rather to write down my own methods and philosophy of training for the benefit of the cyclists with whom I then worked as a coach. I knew that you can truly understand something only when you try to teach it to another person. This is what led to the creation of the Bicyclist's Bible.
Today, fourteen years later, this book is still relevant. Every day, cyclists around the world come to me with a lot of interesting questions. The publication of the first book spurred work on two subsequent books (The Triathlete's Training Bible and The Mountain Biker's Training Bible), as well as a website (www.TrainingPeaks.com) launched in 2000 to make the described in the book of training methods and related practical tools accessible to everyone. I have discussed the concepts in this book with thousands of athletes around the world and am amazed at how well it has been received in the cycling world and the impact it has had on so many readers and their sport.
We offer you the fourth edition of the Bicyclist's Bible, which contains many clarifications and additions. Not a single chapter of the book was left unattended. Sports science has come a long way in the last few years, and I've updated this edition with the latest and most reliable information. The book contains the results of research that allowed me to significantly better understand a number of issues related to cycling and improve my coaching skills. In addition, over the years I have constantly made some changes in my methods of training athletes, which gave good results. It also forced me to make changes to the original text of the book. A number of sections have been updated to answer the many questions that athletes have asked me over the years. Athletes today are just as eager as they were when my book first went out of print to understand how they can improve their performance. They continue to support me, ask a lot of questions about my training methods and offer a huge amount of new ideas. The work on the Bicyclist's Bible gradually turned for me into an endless, pleasant and interesting journey into the world of the unknown.
And although many additions have been made to the fourth edition of the book, its basic principle, which was stated in the preface to the first edition, remains the same - “I offer you this book in the hope that you will become a better racing driver and someday return to me to teach me what you have learned in your training."
Joe Friel
Introduction
How should heavy exercise be planned? How to choose the best way to train for the days leading up to important races? How many kilometers should be driven before starting speed exercises? Is it right to ride and lift weights on the same day? How long should recovery skating be? What should be done to make climbing easier?
These are just a few of the questions I hear almost daily from competitive cyclists, smart and motivated people (I swear the same could be said for you). All of these people have been cycling and running for three or more years and have made remarkable strides in improving their fitness. In the first two years of training, competition seemed like an adventure to them, they usually showed good results in almost all the races in which they participated. Now, with the transition to a new, higher category, everything has changed. They can no longer wait for improvements through more voluminous, active and hard training. Athletes find themselves in a situation where they have much more questions than answers.
The purpose of this book is to give you answers to questions related to the organization of the training process, and therefore help you perform better in competition. The answers will not always be as simple and unambiguous as you might like. Although sports science has come a long way over the past thirty years, the training process continues to be an art in many ways.
Almost always, my answer to questions about training begins with the words: "It depends on a number of factors." It depends on what exactly you have been doing up to now, how much time you can devote to training. It depends on your personal strengths and weaknesses, on when the most important competitions for you take place. It depends on your age, how long you have been seriously training.
I don't want to scare you, but I need you to understand one thing: there are usually several ways to solve training problems. If you ask ten trainers to answer the questions above, you will probably get ten different answers. And all of them can be true, because there are several ways to organize the training of cyclists. My goal in this book is to help you find the answers to your questions that best fit your unique situation. Therefore, The Cyclist's Bible is based on a range of ideas and concepts presented in each chapter, and reading it carefully will hopefully help you find the right answers to your "why?" question.
In Part I, we'll talk about the need for high commitment for self-training cyclists, a common-sense training philosophy. Chapter 1 describes what it takes to be successful in cycling besides talent. Chapter 2 offers a new perspective on the process of training, which is likely to be contrary to your usual ideas. I hope that The Ten Commandments of the Training Process will make you stop reading for a while and reflect on what it means to train smart.
Part II talks about the scientific basis of the training process. To begin, in Chapter 3, I will describe the most common training management concepts. Chapter 4 will talk about the most important aspect of training - its intensity - and how to properly approach it. Since the first edition of this book, power meters have become available to athletes, giving us a new way to think about and measure training intensity. Be prepared for the fact that you will have to reconsider everything you have known so far regarding this important issue.
Part III focuses on the idea of mindful training and provides a framework to help you achieve your goals. Chapter 5 will show you how to test your strengths and weaknesses, while Chapter 6 will show you what performance means in terms of racing.
Part IV is the heart of The Cyclist's Bible. We will follow the same path that I use to create an annual training plan for athletes. Chapter 7 will give a general overview of the planning process. Chapter 8 describes a step-by-step planning procedure in a work diary format. After reading this chapter, you will determine your goals for the racing season and how to achieve them. Chapter 9 puts an end to this process and shows how to schedule exercises for the season as a whole, as well as weekly and daily schedules. In addition, this chapter contains recommendations for a set of appropriate exercises. If you're racing during the season, be sure to read Chapter 10 before you complete your annual training plan. Chapter 11 gives examples of some cyclists' annual plans and explains why they were designed the way they were. These examples may be helpful in the process of creating your plan.
Part V focuses on some aspects of the training process that can affect the annual plan. In Chapter 12, I will explain the importance of strength training for cyclists, describe how to include it in your periodization plan, and give some recommendations for some of the exercises. Chapter 13 shows how stretching can improve performance for cyclists. The specifics of training for women, masters, juniors, and beginners are detailed in Chapter 14. If you belong to one of these groups, then reading this chapter will help you master the planning process described in Chapter 8. Chapter 15 deals with the importance of keeping a training diary. It provides an example of a simple diary format that complements the weekly schedules described in Chapter 9. In Chapter 16, we discuss healthy dieting—you'll get a new perspective on how to eat healthy. The chapter also contains information on nutritional supplements and ergogenic auxiliary substances. Chapter 17 covers how to deal with common training problems that cyclists experience—overtraining, exhaustion, illness, and injury. Chapter 18 talks about an extremely important but often overlooked aspect of training: recovery.
Before I begin my story, I want to warn you about the following - this book is designed primarily for cyclists who are already training and participating in competitions. If you are new to the world of sports and just starting your training, then you need to first of all undergo a medical examination. This is especially important for people over the age of 35 who have not been involved in sports for a long time. Most of the exercises described in the book involve significant stress and are intended for people with a high level of fitness and experience in riding.
While I believe this book will help most cyclists improve their performance, it will not make every reader a champion. It takes more than inspiration and a set of the right advice. There is no perfect training program that suits everyone and everyone. Take my recommendations with a pinch of salt and take from this book only what will help you succeed right now. I hope this book will serve as a reliable guide for you for many years to come.
As you can see, The Cyclist's Bible is quite methodical. I hope that the process of analysis and reflection cannot deprive you of the pleasure of riding a bike and participating in competitions. I believe these things are compatible. The greatest pleasure in cycling occurs when you feel ready to take on a challenge, standing on the starting line, or crossing the finish line with your hands raised in triumph. So let's get started!
Part I
Self-training
Norman Hill
(quoted in Review of Cycling Magazine, 1943)
When training or preparing for a cycling competition, the athlete must remember that in order to achieve best results he should treat his occupation as the main work. The whole way of life should be devoted to one goal, namely the improvement of health as the basis of all athletic abilities.
Another thing to keep in mind important fact: even the right training program is not able to lead to an instant improvement in results. On the contrary, this is achieved through strict adherence to it for a long time. In fact, only a very small number of successful athletes have been able to achieve high results without years of constant training and the accumulation of relevant experience.
The right training program can and should improve your ability, but it doesn't guarantee that everyone can become a champion. Often times it's just a matter of luck. The right program training can be likened to taking proper care of your car to maximize your performance, performance and endurance.
Chapter 1
Commitment to sport
At the very beginning of the 12-kilometer climb up the mountain, I looked around and saw that I was surrounded by Ulrich, Pantani, Virenk, Riis, Escarten and Jimenez - cyclists who were among the top ten in general classification. I was dumbfounded. This is the first time I've been around these guys.Bobby Julich, from a moment during the 1987 Tour de France
Empty talk is worth little. It's easy to get caught up in rosy dreams and big goals before the race season starts. But the only way you can really prove your focus on improving results is by taking action. Commitment to the sport is not declared by the first race of the season; it is expressed in everything you do today in order to become stronger, faster and more resilient. True commitment is manifested 365 days a year and 24 hours a day.
Ask about the commitment of the best athletes you know. When they're done with all the "well, I don't know, it's hard to say" ritualistic phrases and get to the point, you'll discover just how big a role cycling plays in their lives. The more a good sportsman is your interlocutor, the more you will hear that his whole life revolves around sports. Most likely he will tell you that his whole day is built around the training process. It is extremely rare that a person who does not play sports regularly can win a competition.
Testing your own potential is not an exercise that you can do whenever you want. It is only possible to reach the heights of perfection when you begin to live, breathe, eat and sleep with the thought of cycling. And it's not just words.
The more committed you are, the more your life begins to revolve around the three main factors of the training process - nutrition, sleep and exercise. Food gives your body the energy to train and speeds up the recovery process by replenishing your depleted energy reserves. Sleep and exercise have a positive synergistic effect on your fitness. They are able to release growth hormone from your pituitary gland. In turn, growth hormone accelerates the recovery process, recreates the shape of the muscles, allows you to get rid of excess weight and ultimately accelerates the level of your training.
And a good level of preparation is exactly what we are striving for. Preparation is a product of three ingredients: effort, rest, and energy. V tab. 1.1 shows how training, sleep and nutrition can be built into your typical day.
Maybe such a deep level of commitment is not for you. In fact, when planning a training schedule, everyone has to find a balance between what we want and what we have to do. You cannot sacrifice your job, family, or other responsibilities for sport. Even professionals have to take into account that life consists not only of sports. And what can make you a great cyclist can often keep you from being a great employee, parent, or spouse. Realistically speaking, every passion has its limits. Otherwise, we would stop communicating with people who do not share our hobbies, and over time become limited fanatics. A balanced training plan should take into account the influence of this factor.
Lifestyle change
What can be done to improve the level of training and results? Small life changes: Not only are they possible, but they will greatly improve your fitness level. Sometimes it can be difficult to strike a balance between training and other responsibilities. However, if you decide to build your daily life in such a way that you devote at least 10% more time to improving your degree of preparation, then you will do it without special problems and achieve noticeable improvement. How about going to bed half an hour earlier than usual, and due to this it is better to rest? Another small daily change that can improve your results is to switch to a more healthy eating. Can you skip 10% of unhealthy foods and replace them with healthy ones? Whatever you put in your mouth is used by your body to completely rebuild every cell of your muscles. This process takes place every six months. Do you want your muscles to be made up of potato chips, candy bars and lollipops? Or is it better if they are formed by fruits, vegetables and lean meats? What else can you change? The Cyclist's Bible can help you make small changes in your lifestyle that can make a big difference over time. But what are the most important changes needed to achieve success? What makes a champion a champion?
Tab. 1.1. Organization option training day
Qualities of a Champion
Successful athletes and coaches who strive to achieve sports peak are always asked two questions:
What does science say?
How do champions train?
Much of this book is devoted to answering the first question, but the second question is just as important. Often, when it comes to what works and what doesn’t in sports, the assumptions of scientists and the practical experience of leading athletes do not coincide. Sports scientists study various aspects of the training process and can provide serious assistance to athletes in this. And although we cannot say for sure what proportion of the ultimate success is due to the athlete’s technique, and what proportion is due to his natural abilities or diligence, an important pattern can still be identified: success comes to athletes who are ready for hard work in training - not feverish jerks, but consistent work for a long time.
Zeal
Lance Armstrong, Tiger Woods and Michael Jordan are often cited as the greatest exponents in their respective sports. What distinguishes a good athlete from a world-class "star"? Genetics or opportunities presented to them? What is more important: nature or self-improvement? Most likely, their main difference is the ability to focus on a continuous process of improvement.Lance Armstrong is a visible example of consistent hard work. He is known for his daily six-hour workouts, constant struggle on the Tour de France circuits, and careful attention to every bite of food he puts into his mouth.
After Tiger Woods won the Masters Tournament in 1997, beating the second-place finisher by as many as 12 shots, he never stopped practicing to improve his shot. And even winning four major tournaments in a row on the PGA Tour (no one else managed to do this), Woods did not stop working on improving it. As a result, Woods single-handedly managed to change the attitude towards the training process that developed at that time among professional golfers.
Michael Jordan was kicked out of his high school basketball team, which forced him to prove his athletic prowess to himself. Jordan earned respect among the pros for his commitment to continuous improvement, often staying in the gym after training to work on his weak points.
It seems that it is hard work that is the basis of the success of these athletes. A recent study confirmed this view. Moreover, his data show that it takes at least ten years of systematic, concentrated work to achieve truly great results in sports. And this is confirmed in the cases of Armstrong, Woods and Jordan. Their high level of dedication serves as a model for other athletes who strive to be among the best in their sports.
As a coach for thirty years, I have often noticed that the physiological performance of athletes improves significantly seven years after the start of training. Then for another three years, they continue to improve their results: they gain experience, an understanding of how training, lifestyle and racing can help them succeed. At the same time, the ten-year period remains the same, regardless of the age at which the athlete begins to train and participate in competitions.
ten commandments of training
To help you understand my philosophy, I offer the Ten Commandments of Training. Use them in your work, return to them in your thinking, and you will get the best return on the time you devote to training. Your results will improve, and this will happen regardless of your age and time of cycling.
Commandment 1: Train in moderation
When it comes to endurance, speed, and strength, keep in mind that each person has their own unique limitations. Do not constantly test your body for strength. On the contrary, you should stay within the limits of your capabilities in the process of training. Finish with the feeling that you could do more. Sometimes you may even end the exercise earlier than you planned. It's quite normal. You don't have to push yourself to the point of exhaustion.
Before the muscles begin to "fail" and cease to work normally, they are able to contract quite a certain number of times. When you begin to lack glycogen (the polysaccharide in which the body stores glucose), no amount of willpower will energize your body. All you can do at this moment is to stop and rest. If you often and for a long time work at the edge of your capabilities, you will end up exceeding your body's ability to adapt. As a result, the recovery period will be significantly delayed and the consistent nature of the workout will be interrupted.
The main mistake most athletes make is that they try to do too much on their easy training days, but when it comes time for hard training, they don't give it their all. The result of such training turns out to be rather mediocre, which negatively affects the athlete’s physical form and his results. The higher your level of fitness, the greater should be the difference between the intensity of heavy and easy days.
Many cyclists think that constant hard training will make them stronger. They believe that will and character can overcome the forces of nature and the speed with which changes occur in the body at the cellular level. Do not even try to follow this approach - more hard training is unlikely to the right choice. The body adapts better when tension builds up gradually. This is why you often hear advice to increase your weekly volume by no more than 10%. And for some athletes, even such an increase may be excessive.
Through gradual progress (especially in the area of intensity), you will be able to gradually increase your level of strength, as well as provide yourself with enough time for other non-sporting activities. An athlete who enjoys training will gain far more benefits than an athlete who is constantly on the verge of overtraining.
A cyclist who organizes his own training must learn to think objectively and without unnecessary emotions. In fact, he acts simultaneously in two guises - a racer and a coach. And the main responsibility for what is happening should be borne by the “coach”. When the "racer" says, "More needs to be done," the "coach" must consider how wise such a suggestion looks. Doubt is a serious reason for terminating a session. Doubt? Finish the activity.
Approach the exercises with a certain amount of conservatism, but at the same time maintain a certain audacity. When the “coach” stops a hill climb exercise and the “racer” says, “I could do more,” stopping the activity is not a defeat—in fact, it is a victory.
Commandment 2: Train Consistently
The human body tends to get used to routine work. Create a training plan for yourself, in the main aspects repeated from week to week - regular activity leads to positive changes. This does not mean that you have to do the same exercises every day. Growth is also driven by diversity. As you read this book, you will see that there are only small changes in the training schedule throughout the entire training year. Some of them are almost invisible. You may not even pay attention to them, for example, when you add an extra hour per week to your studies during the Base period or the Build period.
Breaks in consecutive sessions are usually the result of excesses shown in the process of training. Exercising too hard or exercising too hard during the week can lead to increased fatigue, illness, exhaustion, or injury. The level of fitness is not a constant value - every minute it goes up or down. Frequent skipping of exercises means a loss of physical fitness. However, this is not a reason to continue classes even during the period of illness. Sometimes breaks are simply necessary. For example, what do you usually do when:
Feeling tired, but have to do some more planned heavy exercises;
Are you afraid that during the rest you will lose physical form;
Know that your opponent is doing more than you;
Feel that your training partners are working faster than you;
Feel like you can't do more than one more set of exercises;
Think you can do more, but are not sure about it;
Were defeated in the race;
Lost your good physical shape?
If your philosophy is "the more, the better," then you will answer these questions differently than if it were phrased as "doing the minimum amount of certain types of exercise that leads to continuous improvement." Feel the difference?
It's not that you shouldn't do heavy exercise or that you shouldn't challenge your limits from time to time. Obviously, if your goal is to approach your maximum potential, then in the course of training you should often challenge yourself. The problem arises when you don't know when to stop, step back, rest, or do less than planned. The inevitable consequences of the “more is better” philosophy will be exhaustion, overtraining, illness and injury. They will be followed by frequent or long breaks in training, a decrease in the overall level of fitness, the need for recovery, and therefore, a return to the previous, lower level of training. Cyclists who regularly experience such problems rarely achieve high sports results.
Consistent training, not borderline training, is the ideal way to improve your fitness. The keys to consistency are moderation and rest. This may not be exactly what you expected from a book on the training process, but nevertheless, I recommend that you continue reading to better understand how the sequence of training can help you become faster.
Commandment 3: Give Yourself a Rest
It is in the process of rest that the body adapts to the stress associated with training and becomes stronger. Without rest there is no improvement. As stress increases during training, the need for rest also increases. Most cyclists do not take this commandment seriously; understanding its importance with the mind, but not with the heart. And it is this training instruction that is most often violated. It is impossible to improve your results without sufficient rest!
... And good night to you
You can improve the quality of your sleep in the following ways.
Go to bed at the same time every day, including weekends and the night before races.
Dim the lights in your bedroom an hour before bedtime and start to calm down, such as reading, taking a short walk, or talking to others about something that doesn't stress you out.
Sleep in a darkened and well-ventilated room at a temperature between 15 and 18 degrees Celsius.
Take a warm bath before going to bed.
Consistently tense and relax the muscles of your body in order to achieve the maximum degree of relaxation.
Refrain from drinks that stimulate activity (coffee, strong tea, cola) a few hours before going to bed.
Refrain from drinking alcohol before bed (alcohol interferes with normal sleep).
Commandment 4: Train according to the plan
Planning is the heart of your workout, especially when you're setting really big goals. You may have heard from good athletes that they achieve high results without planning. I'm willing to bet that they actually follow the plan, they just don't put it in writing. Athletes who train haphazardly do not become great! You won't succeed either. Fortunately, the issue of planning is the main issue of my book. Chapter 8 will cover how to develop a training plan and break it down into periods. In Chapter 9 we will talk about planning a typical training week, and in Chapter 10 we will talk about planning in preparation for a specific race.
A good plan is the basis for improvement in almost all areas of our lives. Meanwhile, only a few athletes who work independently are engaged in planning. Sometimes I meet riders who use standard plans gleaned from professional sports magazines. Moreover, as soon as the next edition falls into their hands, they immediately abandon the old plan and adopt a more recent one. Most people will be able to improve their performance if they work according to a plan - and according to any plan. It can be raw, superficial, and yet workable. You just have to stick with it and don't stop using it for no good reason.
All plans are subject to change. And your plan is not set in stone. It will take a lot of flexibility to overcome the many obstacles that may come your way: a cold, the need to stay late at work, an urgent business trip, or an unexpected visit from your aunt. I have worked with athletes who have experienced this. In any case, you must be prepared for unexpected problems and not fall into a trance when it actually happens. Just make some changes to your plan to fit the situation.
I realized that one of the most milestones planning is staging main goal. Most athletes believe they have goals, but few work towards achieving them. What most people think of as goals are actually simple desires. In fact, these are vague dreams of great achievements. Often in conversations about these dreams, the word “faster” flashes. In the process of creating a training plan for an athlete, I ask him the question from the very beginning: “How can you understand that the completed season was successful for you?” After that, I ask the question: “What is the most significant achievement you would like to achieve as a cyclist?”. Thus, I force him to think about his long-term goals. In fact, these are really dreams, but dreams about the future can eventually turn into goals. Without a doubt, they will help you formulate goals, and in this sense, a clear definition of your dream can be a great starting point.
To help the athlete turn wishes into goals, I ask him questions like “how much?”, “when?” “where?”, “does this goal help you mobilize?”, “how realistic is it?”. Knowing exactly what you want is essential condition achieving success - both in cycling and in life in general. The goal setting process is discussed in detail in Chapter 8.
Commandment 5: Train less often as part of a group
There is no doubt that group lessons there are a number of advantages. Riding in a group helps develop maneuvering skills, allows you to get practical experience similar to racing, makes you run faster time workout. Riding with friends can motivate an athlete to exercise in bad weather or when they are tempted to give up training and do other things. Often, though, group riding forces you to ride fast at precisely the times when you'd be best off for slow, relaxed recovery riding. Sometimes, as part of your individual plan, you should have traveled more or less than the rest of the group. Group exercises quite often turn into unstructured races, and often at the most inopportune time for you.
If you are going to ride with a group during the Base Period or the Build Period, then find a group that works at a pace that is comfortable for you. In the spring, when you're building up intensity, ride with a group that encourages you to move faster (like a race pace). Sometimes it is not easy to find smart and structured groups. You may need to organize your own "team". Stay away from large groups occupying the entire track and not being careful enough. Your goal should be to learn how to drive faster and not get killed. Use group training only when it can be useful for you. In all other cases, stay away from velogroups.
Commandment 6: Plan to peak
The season plan should lead you to reach your best form by the time the most important events for you begin. I call them type A races. Type B races are just as important, but you don't have to slow down and get in peak shape to prepare for them - you just need to rest for three or four days before starting them. Type C races are nothing more than one way to train ahead of Type A and B races. Knowledgeable cyclist will use these non-priority races in order to gain experience, try to move at a particular pace, test his physical form (for example, by setting a goal to complete the distance in a certain time).
Reaching the peak also means training for the unique features of the upcoming competition. The main factor is the duration of the race. There is a significant difference in preparation for a 40 km time trial, 45-minute criterium or road race 60 miles. In addition, important factors include such features of the track as elevation changes, the nature of the climbs, the number of turns, the type of road surface, the start time of the race (morning or evening), the weather conditions in which it will be held, as well as many other variables. As you move towards peak form, your training should increasingly take into account the unique characteristics of the upcoming competition. In Chapter 10, you will learn how to plan your race with all relevant variables in mind.
This book will show you how you can peak before Type A races twice or thrice in a season. Each peak can last a couple of weeks. Between peak periods, you can race, but the focus will be on restoring endurance, strength and speed skills before the next peak period.
Commandment 7: Work on Your Weaknesses
What do riders who have good stamina but have problems with speed skills do most often? Of course, they are working on improving endurance. What do cyclists who are good at climbing do? There is nothing surprising in the fact that they train in riding on hills. Most cyclists spend too much time working on what they are already good at. What is your main weakness? If you don't know this, then ask your training partners. I'm sure they can answer this question. And devote more time to working in this particular zone.
The Cyclist's Bible will help you identify your weaknesses and teach you how to work on them. Understanding your own “limiters” is critical to the success of your sports career. So every time you come across the term “limiter” in a book, pay close attention to it.
Many athletes involved in endurance sports (with the exception of swimming) tend to underestimate, and sometimes even ignore, issues related to cycling technique. Most cyclists, especially in their first three years of training, have plenty of room to improve their balance, cornering, pedaling and maneuvering skills. As these skills improve, you begin to use less energy, therefore, your movements become more economical and you can move faster with the same effort as before. Skill improvement and energy savings, which are so important for newcomers to the world of cycling, are covered in Chapter 14.
As you identify your individual limits, remember that mental preparation is just as important as physical preparation. In Chapter 1, I talked about the importance of mental perseverance, breaking it down into four elements: the desire to succeed, self-discipline, self-confidence, and patience. Perhaps the key element that binds all the others together is belief in yourself. In my athletes, I look for a quiet and calm self-confidence - this trait is inherent in all top athletes. Self-doubt is what largely explains the inability of a person to achieve high goals, despite his excellent physical abilities. Working with a sports psychologist helps to overcome this shortcoming.
Commandment 8: Trust Your Workouts
There is nothing worse than believing that you are moving towards your goal, and on the day of the competition to feel that you are not physically ready for it. Few of us trust our preparation when it comes time for the final race. But this fear should be vague, caused by the release of adrenaline. You should not think of your unpreparedness as a fait accompli. In order to have confidence in your training, it is extremely important to regularly evaluate what is happening with your body throughout the year. If you notice that certain aspects of your fitness are not improving as you expected, you can adjust or even change your training methods in time, and do this well before the week when you will take part in the race. There are many ways to measure progress in terms of fitness. Some of them will be discussed in chapter 5.
If you don't fully trust your training method, then as you get closer to a significant competition, you may start to worry that you haven't worked hard enough and continue pushing yourself until the day of the competition. I have seen athletes who, even on the eve of an important race, gave themselves a long workout or participated in a difficult competition, because they thought that this would help them succeed in the race. Meanwhile, a person needs from 10 to 21 days (depending on the duration and complexity of training) of reduced loads in order to “tune” their body to the upcoming race. Slow down before an important start, you can show a much better result.
Commandment 9: Listen to your body
It is extremely important to bring the volume of training to the level necessary to achieve your goals. When I was younger, I thought that success depended on maximum training volume. This periodically led to injuries, overtraining, and exhaustion. It took many years for me to learn to listen to my body and understand exactly what I should do. I began to do only what was necessary to achieve my goals. Once I stopped pushing the limits my body had set for self-healing, I improved my athletic performance tremendously.
I base my position not only on my own experience. In the early 1990s, after the fall of the Berlin Wall, I attended a meeting with the former head of the GDR Sports Institute. He described the highly regulated lifestyle of the East German sports elite. Every morning, the athlete met with a group of experts - a coach, a physiologist, a doctor or nurse, a sports psychologist. They checked the athlete's readiness for training on a given day, and then made appropriate changes to his training schedule. In fact, they listened to what the athlete’s body was talking about. The athlete trained exactly at the level that he could endure that day. And no more.
It would be great if each of us could provide such attention to ourselves from specialists. But for the most part, this is not available to us, so we must learn to listen to our body. If you can do this, then you train more efficiently, which means you ride much faster. Cyclists who train effectively always outperform athletes who train hard. The Cyclist's Bible will teach you to listen to your body every day - and therefore train effectively.
Let me make an important comment - even though I usually train passionate and hard working athletes, I have learned how important it is to enjoy the training process. It may seem self-evident, but some athletes are so focused on improving their performance that they forget why they started playing sports. One gets the impression that they simply lost the pleasure of this process. Many professionals I have spoken to wonder how some amateurs manage to train so hard—besides working 50-60 hour weeks, raising kids, going to football practice with them, participating in voluntary charitable programs, and doing a lot of other things. The schedule of professionals looks much simpler: they train for 30-40 hours a week, only occasionally allowing themselves to take a nap during the day. Many pros have told me that once they stop enjoying the sport, they will immediately leave the sport and find something else to do. It is the enjoyment that is the reason for our cycling. Don't forget about it! Whatever the results of the last race, they are not vital for you. Your children will not love you less even if you lose. And the sun will rise into the sky in the same way. Therefore, smile more often, frown less often - have fun, and you can achieve much more in sports.
Commandment 10: Move towards your intended goal
If you want to go further and faster this season than last season, then you will have to do things differently, and maybe even change your lifestyle. What is the limiting factor for you? You may need to go to bed earlier. It is possible that you are not eating properly. Perhaps you should spend more time in the winter gym by increasing your level of strength. Perhaps your training partners are acting as a deterrent.
Once you have set your goals (which you will do in the next chapter), evaluate them again and see how they relate to your lifestyle and training process. If you find that changes are needed, go for them.
True commitment is manifested 365 days a year and 24 hours a day. Striving for the highest performance requires your unconditional commitment, which is not only related to training. The more committed you are, the more your life begins to revolve around the three main factors of the training process - nutrition, sleep and exercise. Food gives your body the energy to train and speeds up the recovery process by replenishing your depleted energy reserves. Sleep and exercise have a positive synergistic effect on your fitness.
Every day you have to make a variety of decisions related to your lifestyle: diet, sleep, which will also affect your athletic performance.
A passionate racer behaves like a good student. Read everything you can get your hands on on the subject of cycling, sports nutrition and the like. Chat with coaches, athletes, mechanics, race organizers, equipment dealers, and others who may have their own unique take on things that interest you. Ask questions, but keep a healthy dose of skepticism. If you want to grow in sports, change is necessary. New people can be a source of new knowledge for you.
Improvement training requires journaling. Write down exercise details, perceived assessment of your effort, your body's signals of stress, race results and distance analysis, signs of decline or improvement in fitness levels, changes in the composition of the equipment used, and everything else that characterizes your daily sports practice. This may be useful to you when you are on the track. Most athletes often find that keeping a diary helps them concentrate better during their workouts and results in faster forward movement towards their goals.
I would like to say a few words about goal setting - if you can determine the goal at the beginning of the season and are sure that you are able to achieve it even before the start of training, is this normal? The idea of goal-setting is that you must overcome the obstacles that prevent you from becoming a better athlete on the way to your intended goal. True purpose allows you to push the boundaries of what is possible, encourages you to develop new skills, gain strength, make lifestyle changes. Whatever this "new" is, it's clear that it's critical to your future success, and therefore requires you to focus and improve. I call this process "fixing constraints". More information on this subject can be found in Chapter 6.
One more thing to understand is that the more significant the intended goals are in relation to your abilities, the more you will have to concentrate on achieving them. If the goal is to finish a single short and not too important race, then you can afford to loosen up a bit with regards to nutrition, sleep, choosing a training partner, socializing with friends, stretching, equipment, exercise analysis and strength training. You can easily overcome this distance. However, if your goal is to win or get into the top three at the national championship, then you will have to devote your entire life to achieving it.
And while commitment to goals is essential, it’s worth remembering that each of us has our own comfortable level of commitment. We cannot sacrifice our work, family or other responsibilities for the sake of successful cycling. Therefore, your commitment to sports, in particular, consists in finding the optimal balance between training and everyday life. We will explore these issues in more detail in Chapters 15-18.
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From the book latest book facts. Volume 2 [Mythology. Religion] author From the book 3333 tricky questions and answers author Kondrashov Anatoly PavlovichWhat ten commandments did God proclaim to the Israelites? The Ten Commandments (decalogue) are the ten basic laws that were God himself on the top of Mount Sinai, first proclaimed to Moses, and then inscribed on two stone tablets and handed over to him. These ones
From the book Secrets of Jewish Sex author Kotlyarsky MarkThe Ten Commandments (in Hebrew - "Asara Dibrot", that is, "Ten Sayings", in the Western tradition "Decalogue") - ten institutions, which, according to the Torah, the Creator of the world Himself proclaimed in front of two million Jews during the Sinai revelation. It is believed that they contain
From the book Guide to Life: Unwritten Laws, Unexpected Advice, Good Phrases made in USA author Dushenko Konstantin VasilievichGood and evil. Ten Commandments Ethics consists of political ethics, business ethics, church ethics - and ethics. (Mark Twain)* * *When Moses came down from Sinai, he said: “So, we discussed this together. I persuaded Him to limit himself to ten points, but the ban on
From the book How to avoid theft. Vehicle security systems author Eremich Natalya GrigorievnaChapter 6. Ten commandments of tranquility The confrontation between good and evil is eternal, as is the confrontation between the installer of security systems on cars and the car thief. The owner of the car here is an arbitrator, on whom it largely depends on what wins: good or evil.
From the book Best for Health from Bragg to Bolotov. The Big Guide to Modern Wellness the author Mokhovoy Andrey From the book The Author's Encyclopedia of Films. Volume II author Lurcelle Jacques From the book The Big Book of Wisdom author Dushenko Konstantin Vasilievich From the book Training for Beginners author Rutskaya Tamara VasilievnaSin See also The Ten Commandments, Good and Evil, Temptation, Confession, Repentance. Repentance”, “Saints and Sinners”, “Conscience” There is a big difference whether a person does not want to sin or does not know how. Seneca We live in such a way that suddenly to see us is to catch
From the author's bookTen Commandments See also “Sin”, “Good and Evil”, “Morality. Ethics. Morality Moses: Inventor of the ten most frequently violated laws. Leonard Louis Levinson * The Ten Commandments are so concise, clear and understandable only because they were written without the help of advisers
From the author's bookGood and Evil See also “Sin”, “Ten Commandments”, “Morality. Ethics. Morality ”When they learned in the Middle Kingdom that beauty is beauty, ugliness appeared. When they learned that good is good, evil also appeared. Lao Tzu The amount of goodness in nature is equal to the amount
From the author's bookMoral. Ethics. Moral See also The Ten Commandments, Good and Evil, Ends and Means, Man to Man starry sky
From the author's bookTraining As the puppy matures, he needs more intensive training. The need for physical activity, their type and amount depend on the breed and health of the dog. For most dogs, the necessary physical activity can provide