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

snoov says:

Mar 9 2012 at 5:58 am

@Chris
Yeah you're right I got out my stopwatch and counted again.

@King Clydesdale
Apologies for my not being able to count, he just doesn't look like he's pedalling all that fast!
mblume says:

Mar 9 2012 at 6:00 am

For me, I like it when you have been suffering with the dudes next to you for three hours and then someone drops the hammer on a climb and there is still another hour to go and you know that you have to kill yourself NOW or you might as well go home. To me, THAT is racing.

@eightzero: A-Merckx

Dead on, that is the point when you see both how mentally hard and physically trained you are. I have been on both ends, and it is demoralizing to not be able to answer this challenge. The key to improvement is not accepting this loss as the status quo in future similar settings.

On Frank's crazy 8 hour solo escapades: I think the mental strength and confidence from enduring these Bataan Death March rides give the rider mental benefits well beyond any physical benefits. And a tough mind, when coupled with a well trained body can often overcome stronger riders with soft melons.
Ron says:

Mar 9 2012 at 6:02 am

I used to weight train a lot for sports. I went back to a gym once after the end of college sports and I just couldn't handle it. Maybe because I'd been in the team-training room for so long. The grunting and self-gazing at a gym ain't for me. A few times a week I do a series of very simple weight-training exercises. It requires one dumb bell & one bowling ball that I screwed a chain handle into. That's it for me. Might change when I get older but for now, I still have more muscles than I need as a cyclist left over from other sports.

Stretching & flexibility are two things I need to develop far more than muscles.

eightzero - "Here's my training plan: ride the fucking bike." I like this plan! Keeps it simple.

Mikel - "For 95% of us (those of us with jobs, kids, and the other complications of a non-pro), Train Properly can be summed up in six words:
Ride more.
Sleep more.
Eat better.

End of."

Also, very nice & simple.

Frank - 8 hours solo? Phew. I really enjoy being & cycling alone, but that is one long day in the saddle. Nice work!

The key for me has been to always keep cycling new - I've only been at it awhile so for the first five or so years I was learning as much as I could about bikes, my body, training, etc. Then I started to get pretty good. So, I started doing group rides, any I could find. Then I started being selective about them. (too much data talk on many of them.) Last year I took up cross racing. That REALLY gave me some variety.

I also see life getting in the way more & more quite soon - marriage, job, kids. So, for now I'm just enjoying myself, having fun, riding a bunch, not overthinking my training. I'm also really, really pumped I've stocked up on bikes before marriage so that the Budgetatus isn't a shared one.

I've got n+1+1+1+1cx+1commuter all set up & don't have to bargain to get 'em.
The Oracle says:

Mar 9 2012 at 6:21 am

I never get tired of watching that Cavendish video. You really get the sense of how fast he's going with the camera travelling right alongside of him.
SimonH says:

Mar 9 2012 at 7:40 am

@The Oracle
One thing that suprised me was in the TDU first stage (Crit race) ... Average speed of the hour long race was 48 kph, final sprint speed at 77 kph !!!

Pros are freaks.
frank says:

Mar 9 2012 at 8:16 am

@Chris

@snoov

@Dr C
I read that the thing about Cav that makes him stand out is his ability to kick twice!

@King Clydesdale
Watching that clip I'd put the cadence in the 70 to 80 zone. I thought cadence was measured by a full rotation of the crank, not every pedal stroke. If I'm wrong, I await correction.

He'd have to be turning a huge gear to be doing any meaningful speed at 70 - 80 rpm, that'd be 45 - 50kph at 53 x 11. Given a lead out train most of us could hit that for 20 seconds.

The bunch does gallop in the 75kmph range; the Candence Calc does indeed point this at 114, though from the video he looks to be spinning lower than that. Can't be bothered to count it out, though. Regardless of what the actuals are on that clip, those are the numbers these guys hit when they're on. Very impressive. I spin out my top gear sometimes on descents. The steep ones.
frank says:

Mar 9 2012 at 8:21 am

@Calmante

This is also why I believe in non-traditional cleat placement, ie. as far back toward the heel as possible. Having large feet is a liability in cycling, and there really isn't much science to the method of placing the ball of your foot over the axle. The shorter you make that lever, the less your lower leg has to work to stabilize your foot. I wont go so far as to recommend mid-foot cleat placement, like Joe Friel does, but I won't knock it, either.

Interesting, I never thought of it that way. Through experimentation, I've moved my cleat rather far back - not as far as possible, but it's behind the ball of my foot. It wound up there because it seems to be cause less fatigue on long rides. Makes perfect sense given the lever position. Very cool point.
frank says:

Mar 9 2012 at 8:24 am

@Ron

Frank - 8 hours solo? Phew. I really enjoy being & cycling alone, but that is one long day in the saddle. Nice work!

Ah, its nothing. Dark-to-dark rides are more impressive when its the height of summer. 12 or 14 hour rides will remind you of what you're made.
McTyke says:

Mar 9 2012 at 8:25 am

@Chris

@snoov

@Dr C
I read that the thing about Cav that makes him stand out is his ability to kick twice!

@King Clydesdale
Watching that clip I'd put the cadence in the 70 to 80 zone. I thought cadence was measured by a full rotation of the crank, not every pedal stroke. If I'm wrong, I await correction.

He'd have to be turning a huge gear to be doing any meaningful speed at 70 - 80 rpm, that'd be 45 - 50kph at 53 x 11. Given a lead out train most of us could hit that for 20 seconds.

Hell, even I can hit 50kpm on the flat for a few seconds without drafting anything and I'm just an enthusiastic recreational cyclist! That Cavendish video shows the Manx Missile turning about 18 full pedal revolutions in 10 seconds as he passes Renshaw - a cadence of 114 sounds about right. KC - maybe your computer is a bit slow!
McTyke says:

Mar 9 2012 at 8:33 am

@frank

@Calmante

This is also why I believe in non-traditional cleat placement, ie. as far back toward the heel as possible. Having large feet is a liability in cycling, and there really isn't much science to the method of placing the ball of your foot over the axle. The shorter you make that lever, the less your lower leg has to work to stabilize your foot. I wont go so far as to recommend mid-foot cleat placement, like Joe Friel does, but I won't knock it, either.

Interesting, I never thought of it that way. Through experimentation, I've moved my cleat rather far back - not as far as possible, but it's behind the ball of my foot. It wound up there because it seems to be cause less fatigue on long rides. Makes perfect sense given the lever position. Very cool point.

I'm not so sure about this. If you move the cleat back too far, won't you lose the 'ankling' effect and the extra power that can be supplied by the lower leg? Doesn't a fluid stroke need the ankles to flex during pedalling? How can you 'dance' on the pedals like Pantani, or even Contador, if the pedals are beneath the middle of your feet?