2009 December | Stronger Cyclist

Rudolph’s red tail light

posted on December 14th, 2009 in Cycling by Stephen

I just got back from a 1.5 hour ride in the dense Fog, wet roads of the Atl. I was a little nervous the whole ride about getting hit due to the lack of visibility because of the fog, and lack of daylight hours.
It is the time of year when your ride maybe cut short more by day light than by your energy levels…. I just finished putting new batteries in my Red tail lights and getting them back on to my 2 main bikes (road & Mt…er, 2Niner!).

The Sunset on your Ride Time

I have come back twice at Dusk on a road that is rather busy, with cars rushing around to get home…. it’s dangerous, so I’m not going to further my endangerment by not having lights on and a RoadID on. Yes, it’s geeky, nerdy, whatever, but it’s not Dumb. I’m sure we are all cycling advocates, so why bother giving the motorists another reason to hate. This way if anything does happen, things are on my side….and guess what, the extra weight is an advantage when I take that off next season, and with it, there is a better chance of being around to cycle next season.

The 3 things in cycling for every situation

posted on December 13th, 2009 in Cycling by Stephen

There are 3 main things that will get you out of most situations in cycling. These are true for road and Especially for Mt. bikers!

They are:
1) The Track Stand. Being able to stop the momentum of the bike and maintain balance, and being able to start momentum again with out putting a foot down.
2) the Wheelie. Being able to raise the front wheel to get over the oncoming obstacle.
3) The Bunny Hop. Being able to simultaneously raise BOTH wheels at the same time to go over an oncoming obstacle.
For road racers, I would add, the Bump. This is where you touch or bump another rider. This IS going to happen if you race in ‘mass start’ events, or do group rides, so it is better to get used to it, rather than attempt to avoid and Fear it.

So practice these three/four movements while waiting on your riding buddies to expand your riding abilities!!

Cycling Circuits

posted on December 10th, 2009 in Strength Training by Stephen

I have a workout by the same name. I did this because it is a great way to think of a good workout for an Athlete. Circuit training.

As I was riding with a friend yesterday he was asking me about workouts for cyclists. It slowly became apparent that he was just doing some exercises with no basis of why. I can remember doing the same thing with my cycling training when I was a category 4 rider and all I did was the group rides…..but when I got serious and wanted to improve my cycling using a plan was a huge improvement and boost for me to upgrade to a category 2 rider the following year!

The same preparation that goes into a cycling training program should go into a cyclists weight training program! Don’t use machines! Use Body weights and then add Free-weights!

Another guy asked me about doing weighted squats. Asked him to demonstrate a squat for me. As he squatted, he could not get to parallel and his heels came off the ground, which is pretty typical of guys. So, I showed him the difference in the way he squats and the way I squat. How and why the mechanics of it were different. Part of the reason that his heels come up is because he is not engaging his glutes, and using mainly the quads. Tight hamstrings may also be a contributing factor to this also.

If your squat isn’t using proper form, WHY would you then want to add weight and Amplify improper form? That leads to injuries! You will get much more out of your workout if you correct the muscle imbalance.

Pretty good workout video of Lance at his home gym. Notice that there are no machine based exercises!! You shouldn’t do them either.