After many years of dabbling in mountain biking, I seemed to stumble across some semblance of fitness. Whether this was accidental, or the result of a highly naïve, highly unstructured training plan, I found that my ranking slowly started to improve in the local races. I started to enjoy races, rather than simply survive them, and slowly but surely my competitive spirit was ignited.
At the start of 2014 I set myself a lofty goal – to finish in the top 10% of competitors at a race. Depending on your current level of fitness, that may sound dismally ordinary, or totally unrealistic, but in my case it was a far cry from my regular finishes outside the top 50%.
By Paulo Conde
To put it in perspective, in a field of 100 competitors I’d need to finish in the top 10. It equated to increasing my average speed at races from 16km/h to around 22km/h, or otherwise stated, a 37.5% improvement. I realised that the only way I’d have a shot at achieving this goal was to take a structured approach, but with a hectic job, and a family that includes two young toddlers it was difficult to sign up for proper coaching classes, so I opted to fly solo.
It was with great excitement that I stumbled across The Cyclists Training Bible by Joe Friel. I studiously absorbed chapter by chapter and then nervously put together my very first training programme. That was the first step on a long and tiring 12-month journey where I learned loads about myself, the wonderful sport of cycling and life in general.
If you’re starting (or thinking of starting) out on a similar journey, then here are a few of the biggest lessons I learnt that will hopefully help you get to your goals quicker.
STRUCTURE IS KEY
To be at your best for a race, you need to be at peak fitness come race time. Contrary to popular belief the route to getting to peak fitness is not a straight line. You need to gradually overload your body and then allow it regular periods to recover before taking it to the next level. In this way you save yourself from injuries that could occur from pushing too hard, too soon, and you also ensure that you don’t burnout long before the race you’re targeting.
To get this structure, you need to adopt a formalised training plan that provides the framework for building your fitness gradually. There are plenty of ways you can get your hands on a training plan – you can get some off-the-shelf ones off the internet, sign up with a coach, or research the subject yourself.
Whichever option you choose, make sure that you have identified the races you want to target and also make sure that your training plan is structured in a way that aligns to this goal. It’s no good focusing on endurance training if you’re targeting a short XCO race.
REST TO BE YOUR BEST
One of hardest concepts for me to grasp was the relentless focus on resting as part of the training plan. On the surface, you’d think that to get fitter or faster you’d need to constantly keep pushing the boundaries.
And that’s what most of us average bro’s tend to do. The problem with this is that you are continually fatigued and, as a result, you can never give 100% in your training sessions because you’re bringing that fatigue into every session.
Another important aspect is that it is only when you rest that your body that it has a chance to adapt to the stresses you’ve placed it in under in a hard training block.
As Joe Friel puts it, “Hard training days only create the potential for fitness. They don’t result in fitness improvements unless there is rest.” What a good training plan does is to ensure that you rest up at the appropriate times so that your body can recover and you can smash the workouts where you need to be at your best. Seems counter-productive, but trust me – it works!
REALITY BITES
In the Cyclists Training Bible, Joe Friel provides rough guidelines of the number of hours you need to put in for the year if you want to take your training seriously. The hours range from 200 (for juniors) to 1 200 (for professionals).
That’s a lot of hours per week for us average bro’s with families and full time jobs to sustain our biking addictions! If you want to beat more people at races you’ll need to train harder, and in most cases, for longer than them. If you are really serious about competing, then you’re going to have to be fully dedicated to the cause and put in big sacrifices and bucket loads of hard work for long periods of time.
Cycling will become more than that thing you do on the weekends. It will become an integral part of your life that defines when you sleep, what you eat and when you can see your friends. Late nights will no longer make you tired. Early mornings will.
Time will become the most precious commodity in your life, and your priorities will have to be scrutinised as training will dominate your free time. If your situation doesn’t allow for this level of commitment, then rather accept this fact up front. Put in the training you can but set your sights accordingly.
NOTHING IS SET IN STONE
Another sad reality is that things rarely go according to plan in life. You get sick, you need to travel for work, your bike gets stolen. When life happens, it’s important not to become obsessed with trying to stick to the original plan or playing catch-up, as this will only lead to further frustration, and inevitably heartache.
Accept what has happened, re-evaluate your plan and adjust the training schedule or goals as required. It might mean that your target race is no longer an option, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t target a different race or a different goal.
THE GOAL POSTS KEEP MOVING
The strange thing about human nature is that we are never fully satisfied with where we are. We are driven to constantly be better at what we do, whether it’s working our way up the corporate ladder, getting the best house or car we can afford, or even getting an education.
The same holds true for your fitness. You set your heart and soul on reaching a particular level of fitness, which may seem unrealistic at the time, but once you get there you realise that you can do better and that the biggest thing holding you back is your mind.
When you first realise this it can be frustrating to think that your goals always seem to be out of your reach, but once you get your head around the concept, it’s actually incredibly liberating to realise that the journey ends only when you want it to.
EMBRACE ‘MARGINAL GAINS’
Sir Clive Woodward once said “Winning the Rugby World Cup was not about doing one thing 100% better, but about doing 100 things 1% better”. The same applies to mountain bike racing. There are so many ways to improve that you need to ensure your training plan is diverse enough to improve you in as many areas as possible.
Simple things like a proper bike fitment can increase the power in each pedal stroke. Shoes with rigid soles can help deliver that power more effectively to your pedals. Working on your pedalling technique can ensure a smoother stroke that maximises efficiency and engages the right muscles at the right times. Working on your technical skills can save you several minutes in a race when things get tight and twisty.
You can lose weight (on yourself or on your bike!) in order to increase your power-to-weight ratio. You can upgrade your bike or selected components to help you brake, accelerate or corner better. You can put in more training hours to improve your fitness, power and stamina. The list is virtually endless, so take comfort in the fact that there will almost always be ways to improve.
So, did I reach my goals for the year? Nope, but I’m not overly upset about that. I took a few wrong turns along the way, had a few cases of bad luck, and got sick at the wrong times. What matters is that I came close after having purposefully set the bar a fraction too high. I’m now regularly finishing in the top 15%, my seeding has improved from C or D batch to A or B batch, and my average speed at races is now around 20km/h. I’ve grown significantly during this relatively short period, and had a lot of fun along the way. The best part is that there’s still plenty more to come…
Follow @Rookie_Project on twitter for regular tips to improve your mountain biking.
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*Originally published in TREAD Issue 34, 2015 – All rights reserved
