Categories: ExportLa Vie Velominatus

La Vie Velominatus: Train Properly

There are few pleasures in life as great as to achieve a goal, to accomplish something that doesn’t come easily. Great lessons are taught through this activity; we learn that it is our determination and not our doubt that defines our limits. We learn that through studied discipline we can cultivate the skills required to work incrementally towards becoming what we want to be.

This is true for our personal, social and professional lives – and any other aspect that I may have left off. But to achieve our goals is usually a rather complicated mess; it requires introspection, it often requires reliance upon others to do their part or at least not interfere with you doing yours, and it is usually rife with hard choices of long-lasting and difficult to understand consequences.

In its most basic form, Cycling provides us a path to discovery in a less complicated model than do our actual lives. We train our bodies, we become more healthy. We become more healthy, we train more. We become stronger, we go faster. We derive more pleasure from our efforts. We experience reward for sacrifice. We associate progress with the pain of an effort. We enjoy Cycling more. We ride more. We become healthier still. We become stronger still. We go even faster. We suffer more. We associate more pain with a greater sense of achievement. And though it all, we discover it that unlike every other walk of life, in Sport we are islands: what we find here is only what we have brought with us.

Eventually, exercising will become training. The activity becomes richer with the application of the discipline that comes with this rebadging. Exercise is something you do regularly but without structure. With training comes a study of your body and how it responds to stimulus. Long rides have a different effect on the body than do short ones. Successive hard efforts have another effect, as do longer and shorter periods off the bike.

Training Properly requires discipline and patience. It means you don’t just throw your leg over your machine and pedal off to ride along tree-lined boulevards. Training Properly means having a plan for each day. It means heading for the hills one day, and the plains another. It means controlling yourself and not trying to set your best time up the local climb because you feel good that day. Training Properly means restraining yourself on a group ride and not joining in on the town line sprints if your plan doesn’t call for it. Training Properly means leaving for a ride despite the rain falling from the heavens and the loved ones whom you leave at home.

Training Properly comes down you and you alone; much can be learned from books and coaches, but the path is yours to walk. The discovery is yours to experience and to shape into what you are seeking. There are, however, some basics to keep in mind. Also keep in mind I’m not a “Sports Doctor”, “Physiotherapist”, or “Smart”. And never take medical or sporting advice from Some Guy On the Internet.

Break your muscles down, and allow them to build back up. This is the fundamental principle of Training Properly. Hard efforts break your muscles down. You body will respond by building them back stronger than they were before. This process takes time. Be patient.
Observe Rule #5 when appropriate. In accordance with #1 above, laying down the V is handy for breaking the muscles down, but not so much for allowing them to build back up. Lay down the V one day, then give your body a chance to build back up, either through rest or through low-intensity recovery rides.
Learn to listen to your body. There are good pains and bad pains – learn to tell the difference. Good pains include burning lungs, gun aches, road rash, and the like. These pains will lessen during a ride or even go away completely. Proceed carefully, but learn to push through them; if they don’t go away, they get classified as bad pains. Bad pains include different types of knee pain and chronic pains in, for example, your shoulders, back, or neck. Knees are especially sacred and should be looked after carefully; see a physiotherapist for this and if they prescribe time off the bike, take it. Rushing recovery on a sensitive injury may seem tough and in compliance with Rule #5, but may set you back more than being patient and recovering fully. If you suffer from chronic pains, consult a fitting specialist and work on your position.
Train to ride farther than you need to. Incrementally increase the distance of your training, until you can ride farther than you need to. If you are training for a Sportive or race of 140 kilometers, train to ride 160 or 200; you will arrive for your event with the confidence that you can easily handle the ride and will have something in reserve should things not go according to plan.
Save competing for Race Day. Being competitive is for racing, not training. Set goals for a ride, and adhere to them. Don’t chase after a rider who passes you on a climb when you are on a recovery ride. Don’t lift your pace when you see a rider ahead who you think you can catch. If you don’t race, pick a day or two every week where you try to catch every rider you spot on the road – but remember that they should also be adhering to their own training plan; don’t sit on uninvited and don’t hinder their training through your antics.

Be patient. Have discipline. Train Properly. Vive la Vie Velominatus.

frank

The founder of Velominati and curator of The Rules, Frank was born in the Dutch colonies of Minnesota. His boundless physical talents are carefully canceled out by his equally boundless enthusiasm for drinking. Coffee, beer, wine, if it’s in a container, he will enjoy it, a lot of it. He currently lives in Seattle. He loves riding in the rain and scheduling visits with the Man with the Hammer just to be reminded of the privilege it is to feel completely depleted. He holds down a technology job the description of which no-one really understands and his interests outside of Cycling and drinking are Cycling and drinking. As devoted aesthete, the only thing more important to him than riding a bike well is looking good doing it. Frank is co-author along with the other Keepers of the Cog of the popular book, The Rules, The Way of the Cycling Disciple and also writes a monthly column for the magazine, Cyclist. He is also currently working on the first follow-up to The Rules, tentatively entitled The Hardmen. Email him directly at rouleur@velominati.com.

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View Comments

Mikel Pearce says:

Mar 8 2012 at 2:17 pm

p.s. Great article, despite my post above.
Buck Rogers says:

Mar 8 2012 at 2:23 pm

@grumbledook
Oh yes, completely agree, LOVE CX racing. I have only done it a few times but have huge respect for it. Cannot wait to when we move back to the North East this fall and do some again! Give me the long RR from April to late September and the CX from October/November and then let me nordic ski from Dec through March and I am a VERY HAPPY guy!
Jeff in PetroMetro says:

Mar 8 2012 at 4:45 pm

@snoov

@wiscotAbsolutely, getting out on the bike kills may birds with one stone so to speak. It's cathartic in a psychological sense, it's fun, it's fresh air, it's out of the city, it's fun, the views are spectacular, it's spending time with the mates, it's getting some time alone, it's good for collecting sun rays and manufacturing vitamin D, it's fun, it's thrilling, it's challenging, it's easy, it's fun, it's hard, it's still fun it's LVV.

Yes. This. Except for being out of the city and the spectacular views. I'm in Houston, so those two don't count. But the rest is exactly it for me.
Anjin-san says:

Mar 8 2012 at 5:18 pm

I agree with the over-whelming sentiment of the preceding 123 posts... Great article and great thread- best in a while.

I got myself on a race focused training program in November 2011 and have seen massive improvements in my relatively weak abilities. The structure of the training removes some of the spontaneity of the rides, but my coach and I have worked hard to make them fun... I rarely do the same workout more than twice and month and often we re-work their structure so they aren't too repetitive. My only advice is try to keep it fun- if it sucks you'll only suck it up so long before throwing in the towel.
frank says:

Mar 8 2012 at 5:26 pm

@Ron

Frank - I'm still curious how long that most recent solo 200km ride in the rain took. Damn, that's really far to do solo, but I know you enjoy riding solo as well.

It takes about 7 and a half to eight hours, which is not stellar from an average speed perspective, but keep in mind there are 16 categorized climbs!
frank says:

Mar 8 2012 at 5:29 pm

@eightzero
A masterpiece. Especially the bit about the 11x78 cassette. I love the implication that if you require a 78, that the 11 is still somehow useful.
mcsqueak says:

Mar 8 2012 at 5:37 pm

@frank

What, no side-spur down to Sea-Tac? After the cogal I stopped to grab some fast food and coffee for the drive home in Sea-Tac, and there was a meth head in the Jack-in-the-Box that probably could hook you up with some killer performance enhancers.
frank says:

Mar 8 2012 at 5:57 pm

@Anjin-san

I agree with the over-whelming sentiment of the preceding 123 posts... Great article and great thread- best in a while.

I got myself on a race focused training program in November 2011 and have seen massive improvements in my relatively weak abilities. The structure of the training removes some of the spontaneity of the rides, but my coach and I have worked hard to make them fun... I rarely do the same workout more than twice and month and often we re-work their structure so they aren't too repetitive. My only advice is try to keep it fun- if it sucks you'll only suck it up so long before throwing in the towel.

Totally - and that's where doing it a long time really helps. Just like with learning to recognize different pains - learn to recognize different types of "I donwannaanymore". Your reluctance can be for a hard ride you know you have to do and that will make you happy afterward. Or your reluctance can be because you're burnt out and the sport has stopped being fun.

For me, I usually find that the second case comes alongside not being interested in other aspects of cycling. I didn't want to ride today - it was early, before work, blah blah but I was meeting a friend and I did it anyway. And after the ride, instead of putting the bike in the basement, I put it in the living room because I wanted to look at it during the day while I worked. So my reluctance was more just that I didn't want to ride today, not that I'm burned out.

When I stop wanted to watch a bike race, or pass over the Rouleur and pick up the New Yorker, those can be signs that I'm getting burned out. Not that I only ever read cycling literature, but the point is that when I'm into Cycling, I have to decide to read or watch something else. When I'm burning out, I have to push myself to write, read, or watch Cycling stuff. For me, that's my toggle - that's how I realize I need to back off and find the fun again.

Luckily, the seasons tend to do that for me. Spring and Summer, I am all geared up and ready to slam it every day. Fall comes as a welcome change to focus on long, low intensity stuff. Then by the time we hit Spring, I"m done fucking around and ready to start hurting my legs again. It works.
frank says:

Mar 8 2012 at 6:24 pm

@mcsqueak

@frank

What, no side-spur down to Sea-Tac? After the cogal I stopped to grab some fast food and coffee for the drive home in Sea-Tac, and there was a meth head in the Jack-in-the-Box that probably could hook you up with some killer performance enhancers.

I don't keep my passport updated to let me go down there. Shit, the only reason I keep my pass valid to get to the East Side (Bellevue/Kirkland) is because of work.

My Merckx, Seattleittes are homebodies and hate going anywhere. I used to commute daily 125 miles each way to my office when I lived in North Carolina, and a trip to the nearest reasonable grocery store was 45 miles round trip. Now the grocery store that's 4 miles away seems like a trek and we generally just park the car on Friday and don't move it until Monday.
Marcus says:

Mar 8 2012 at 6:53 pm

@frank
Problem is that a lot of blokes like this have gotten into cycling and don't yet know how to train.

Calmante wouldn't like this fella.