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.
Be patient. Have discipline. Train Properly. Vive la Vie Velominatus.
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@snoov
@Buck Rogers
It's those frikkin' chocolate and peanut butter girl scout cookies that get me every year. Without fail, we will get our order, and I will grab a glass of milk and a few of those, and a half-hour later, I've eaten the whole damn box.
Regarding training, I don' race (I don't count the one or two "T-words" that my wife coaxes me into doing each summer), and I don't really even do group rides much, so I don't consciously train on the bike. Nevertheless, I'm also a runner from way back, and a lot of the basic training concepts Frank lists above translate pretty well from running (and probably a lot of other distance-type sports), and vice versa. I find myself falling into those same training patterns on the bike--intervals; alternating hard efforts and recovery efforts; etc.--without really even thinking about it.
@Steampunk
Dammit. There's virtually no way that I'm going to be able to make that work.
@Nate
Similar experiences from the weight room. Going uphill was a revelation: lots more power. Fitness needs a bit of work, but that will come in time.
Of course, I'm not sure I've ever experienced la volupté. But maybe my definition sets too high a standard. Or I just need to ride gooder...
@doubleR
Good luck! Hope everything will be ok and stay ok!
@snoov
Indeed, the difficulty with these articles is that if you cover everything, eventually you wind up writing a book, and if I've understood correctly, there are already some books available.
In all seriousness, though, diet is a huge part of it, and worthy of its own article and as @mcqueek points out, @Steampunk wrote one on nutrition before, though it was focused on dropping weight moreso than general diet.
I personally am in the practice of watching what I eat; I weigh my pasta before cooking it, and so forth. But diet and training are two separate components that together make you a better Cyclist. In my view, diet is a discrete unit from training.
But to your point, to understand the great mystery, we must study all its aspects, and to become the best Cyclist you can be, eventually diet will come into it. But its all part of the progression - start with casual riding, progress into good training, and when you are ready for the next step, incorporate a better diet.
Great point.
@grumbledook
Hard training rides are fun and very much valued - provided everyone in the group understands what the groups (or at least your) goals are for the ride. What I'm talking about in item #5 there is this sickly habit that people have of lifting the pace on a casual ride until suddenly everyone is riding á bloc instead of observing their plan.
If you're not racing and going on the Rule 5 Wednesday Night hammer fest, that is every bit the time to ride your guts out. But joining the Thursday friends and family Casually Deliberate ride and getting competitive with all the people out there just trying to enjoy a relaxed day, you're missing the point.
Another excellent point - thanks for bringing that up.
@Buck Rogers
I would say I include nutrition more in the "discipline" part of it - that discipline to put down the fork and not reach for a brownie right before bed. Or to pour back that last glass of wine rather than finishing the bottle.
I'm working bit by bit to get back into training and eating right again. But life seems to get in the way of life.
@Buck Rogers
First and foremost, if adding structure etc etc reduces the fun, don't do it. I for one am not a Pro and don't get paid to ride, so I do it in a way that makes it fun. That doesn't mean that want to ride every time I do it, but I do it in a way that, on balance, makes it enjoyable for me.
I think what you're describing here, Buck, is training - you're not following a day by day plan, but you're doing whats right for your body to get stronger - push it, let it recover. Do long rides, do hard rides, etc. I'm similarly busy and don't follow a daily plan. What I most certainly do, however, is decide before I go out, what kind of ride I'm doing. What did I do last time? What will compliment that for me? What rides do I have planned this week, and how should I ride today based on what's coming? Its all very loose, but it also structured around the basic tenets of training. And, one of the biggest things, is the discipline to stick with your plan, but maintain the flexibility to change it if you need to. If you have a Rule 5 ride planned and you go out and you're flat and dead and you don't respond to the intervals, then save them for another day and give your body more time to rest.
Indeed it does - you're not the only one it happens to!