2010 March | Stronger Cyclist

Riding a Criterium

posted on March 30th, 2010 in Cycling, Cycling Tips, Ride Reports by Stephen

If you are like many other people, you have hunkered down most of the winter. Hopefully you did your gym workouts and your base miles through the winter. But now that the time has changed and Spring is here, you are itching to get out and either A) do a training crit or B) enter your first crit race.

Congratulations! This is a big step, whether you are an experienced racer, or a novice rider, jumping into a big ride – the first crit of the year is always an exciting and nerve racking experience. You will be around many other lycra clad cyclists all riding on tires that are about the width of your thumb – now let’s add TURNS!

Here are some tips to help you and your fellow riders remain upright for the whole ride.

- Hold your line. Everyone tells you to go Outside, Inside, Outside of the turn. This is true, if you are off the front, or off the back of the pack, but not when you are IN the Pack! You see the pack will generally take that line, but you must keep in mind how the other riders around you are also going through the turn, and what lines they are taking.

Imagine you are riding in the car with a race car driver, he will take the optimal line through the turn, and the whole time the driver and the passenger are equal distance from each other. The same thing goes for the pack, you go with the pack as a whole keeping the same distance between each rider equal through the turn.

- Be predictable – no fast twitching movements.
Other than the actual corners, The bike should always being moving forward. Then if needed you may move forward and slightly left or slightly right… not swinging left or right. Although the rider behind you is responsible for their actions, you can help keep them safe, just as you rely on the rider ahead of you.
Unfortunately, I saw a crash happen that the front rider caused because he swung to the left. The rider behind him had too much momentum and they just happened to be overlapping wheels at that moment, and the 2nd rider went down. Maybe the 2nd rider should not have been overlapping wheels, but the 1st rider should have been more predictable and steady with his movements.

There should be a minimal input into the handlebars. Your steering will come more from your body.
1) Head – the human head weighs 8 pounds (just ask Jerry McGuire) – this is why it is so easy to veer when you turn your head. Just tilt your head slightly in the direction you want to go.
2) Hips – this will involve the whole trunk of the body. You can use your hips and thighs to move the saddle.
3) Knees – the most common way of adjusting your center of gravity. moving a knee out from the top tube will move your center of gravity slightly usually causing the bike to follow.

- Watch where you are going and Look where you want to go.
Generally if you stare at something you don’t want to hit, you will hit it (Jerry McGuire effect). Look where you want to go.

The very first Historic Roswell crit race we organized, I worked on setting up the last turn, which was a tighter than 90 degree turn. Just after we finished they sent off the beginner’s category. I watched as the first racers navigated out of the turn. Just as I had thought that everyone had gone by, a lone rider came into the turn looking at the wall of hay bales, and never looked away. His bike took him directly where he was looking, into those hay bales!

Once the front wheel stopped, the rear wheel kicked-up – causing the man did a face plant into the hay. Strangely he then came right back down on his feet! Bewildered, he then attempted to get clipped back-in. Luckily the referee was right there and gave him a free lap to check to make sure everything was ok. Luckily he was just fine, but learn from his lesson

- Relax – the more tense that you are the more energy that is not going to the pedals, and the sooner you will feel fatigued. The more you start to relax the more you will be able to bend like a reed in the wind. A more relaxed body will allow you to meander around people and obstacles.

- Once you are getting fatigued, and your power output is drained, it is OK, to slowly move off the back, cool down, then stop for the day. Most accidents with beginners happen when they are pushing their bodies so hard that they loose focus, and make a mistake. This can be avoided if you recognize that you are pushing too far into fatigue. When training using power, once an athlete can not hold a set wattage for each interval they stop the workout because they know they will no longer get any benefit from the workout.

So, at the next training criterium you go too, work on these tips to be safer and enjoy the ride even more!

How to deal with being sick

posted on March 22nd, 2010 in Cycling, Cycling Tips by Stephen

After thinking that I was not going to get sick this winter, I did end up coming down with something. I try to be very careful about washing my hands. But as careful as I try to be, I still came down with a virus.

This virus was a little different for me. During the day, I actually felt decent enough that I almost thought I was getting better. Then later that evening, the symptoms would come around again.

A 70 degree day and a bike ride in the Mountains is hard to pass up, but it is necessary. Even though you may feel decent and think that you are good enough to start training again, it is best to take it easy. It is important NOT to tax the body while it is attempting to fight off a Virus or infection. The body can only fight 1 battle at a time and getting well should be your first priority – because it is first priority for your body!

I still try to get out, but my goals change. I keep the Heart Rate at a much lower level than I usually would otherwise. I try to keep my HR under 130 and keep the duration under an hour. That way I can still be moving, but I don’t tax my body, but rather get the blood flowing and re-circulating. Another option that I will do is to just got for a walk. It helps to get yourself out of the house and breathe some fresh air.

Just like an injury an illness can be dragged out for an extended length of time if you do not allow the body to fight the virus. It is very hard for competitive athletes to not do what they most want to do, but if you listen to your body, you will usually make the correct decision about your training.

Once you do start to feel better, then take a week to slowly build back up to the mileage AND intensity.
1. reason for this is that it will allow the body more time to fully get over the sickness.
2. It allows your body to re-adapt to the training regimen instead of being thrown right back into the mix.

~To good Health!

First Group Ride of Spring

posted on March 19th, 2010 in Cycling, Cycling Tips, Ride Reports, Strength Training by Stephen

Every spring you may go to the main group ride wondering if you will get dropped – have I done enough homework during the winter? Did everyone get faster than me?

I would usually disappear from October-March, but once the time changed, I would be right back into the mix of a couple group rides… several people have asked me how I was able to suddenly just cruise along at the front of these rides when I hadn’t been doing them all winter. I would just laugh at the question. What they didn’t know was that yes, obviously I was riding. I just wasn’t riding in the same groups through the winter that they were. From their perspective, I wasn’t riding all winter because I wasn’t on the rides that they were doing. Like an iceberg, all they were seeing was where I am today, not what I have been doing all winter.

There are several reasons for this, time change, location of the rides, not being able to ride to a ride, etc. But the number 1 reason they didn’t see me all winter was that they thought they would ‘loose’ fitness if they didn’t ride hard all winter. Some cyclists think that if you are not used to going at the speed of the group year around, then you will get to a point where you will no longer be able to hang on. Although if your goal is to just ride with groups all year, then yes, this maybe true. However, I had races as my goals each year, thus I had different ways of training to attain those goals.

I had learned that it was good to give my body a break after the US 100K race each fall (September). I would actually have to try to take time off the bike and do other things – this was often hard. After awhile I learned to back off and enjoy the changes of the seasons. Not only did I learn that I could do this, but in fact it made me a stronger cyclist – both physically and especially mentally!

I found that I really enjoyed those LSD (Long Slow Distance) rides for aerobic base building. It was a non-competitive rides where you could share some work at the front and chat with friends all while having a relaxed ride. During this time I would either ride alone, or ride with a group that had the same ideas/goals on winter training that I did.

After 2 months of base building, I didn’t just jump back onto a group ride and expect to keep-up with everyone. I worked out in the gym using a structured training plan, then started doing hill repeats and intervals with enough recovery mixed in so that I didn’t over-reach my goals. Another aspect of the training plan, was that I didn’t come into top form in March when the group rides started – they were used for testing, and to add a little speed to my legs. Even though I was out on the group rides, my riding was often reserved. I would stay out of the wind, rarely would I push the pace. Usually the speed of traveling with the group was enough of an adaption to have a successful training day.

When group rides are utilized correctly, they can be great tools for the cyclist training for an event. When they are used as training races, often cyclists will push themselves to the point that they are either A) overtrained. or B) pushing so much that their CNS (Central Nervous System) will suppress their ability and only allow them to ride at a ‘medium’ pace. In order to have great highs, you must also have very Easy days!

However, if a racing cyclist only does group rides, then they are truly missing out on some untapped ability. That is where the over-view of a good training plan can assist the cyclist in specific preparation for the Spring and Summer races.