If you want performance in cycling, by no means will it be a walk in the park. Just like any other sports, cycling requires a lot of training and constant effort. For semi-professional and professional cyclists, it’s crucial to keep a good stamina, good muscle tonus and a good weight so that they can perform at their best. Regardless if you’re a pro, or a casual bike rider that wants to push his limits to their maximum extent, cycling training is of utmost importance.
Like we stated above, the main characteristics a good cyclist should have are a good stamina, strong (leg) muscles and a good fitness level, meaning no extra fat on his or her body. Let’s see how you can increase your stamina in a simple cycling training program.
First off, you need to think ahead on what kind of tracks you’ll mostly be doing, long or short ones. The first require a good endurance while the latter will have you depleting your energies faster, in short bursts of pedaling. For the endurance part, you can choose two methods to train. The first involves on-bike training, whether this means that you’ll be riding daily on your road bike, on a long track that you set up beforehand, or you can practice at home, on a stationary bike. What you need to remember is that you shouldn’t accelerate heavily, since you’ll become increasingly tired and won’t be able to sustain the longer run. Instead, try to keep your speed steady and your breathing likewise. Correct breathing is extremely important on long runs in order to keep your body oxygenized at all times, in order to be able to sustain the constant effort.
The second method you can increase endurance is jogging. Jogging has a few advantages and a few disadvantages compared to training on your bike. First of all, while running you put in motion a larger array of muscles than while cycling and generally, you’ll lose weight faster then by riding. However with cycling training endurance you work exactly those muscle groups that you will need on a cycling track. It’s generally agreed upon the fact that the best solution is to combine both types of endurance training for excellent results.
For shorter tracks, where you require more sprinting than steady endurance, the methods above apply, but at different parameters. Try both cycling training and running but at short bursts, with greater effort and speed. Sprints should not be longer than 70-80 meters, since that’s the longest period you will probably be able to sustain a constant top speed. You can’t apply the above-mentioned breathing method here, since at maximum running or cycling speed, your breathing will no doubt fall short of your effort. That’s why bursts need to be short and effective, taking as long as you can hold your breath during the effort period (you might have noticed 100 meter sprint athletes how they hold their breath on the entirety of those 10-11 seconds that they run in).
The second type of cycling training required is muscle building. Although muscles gain tonus and “sharpness” simply by riding your bike, it’s a good idea to go to the gym and work out those muscles that you use mostly. These will be leg muscles of course, more specifically your femoral biceps, your adductors, your hamstrings, quadriceps and calf muscles. There are specific gym cycling training programs that you can try out, but they are not the subject of the current article.
Lastly, the fitness and weight problem. It’s easy to see why all cycling training programs focus on this, since if you want to achieve performance, your every move needs to be as sharp as possible and both movement and acceleration speed are hindered by extra fat on your body. Besides these important factors, we can also bring up that the lighter you and your bike are, the faster you can ride. It’s only logical that someone that wants cycling performance to require almost a fat-free body.
A combination of the above-mentioned factors is extremely necessary in every cycling training program, as is being constant in practicing them. It won’t help much if you practice your sprints every day for 2 weeks then take a 1 week break. Almost all that you worked for will be lost. That’s why, before a competition it’s very important to start working at least one month before the actual start. If your cycling training is a good one, so will your performances be.
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