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.

Next Guest Article: Anti-Reverence? The Spin Bike. »

Previous « Keepers Tour Update: Contact Point Supplier: fi'zi:k

View Comments

Ron says:

Mar 7 2012 at 8:30 pm

@tessar

Training properly, for me, is striking that very fine balance between "not training", and overtraining/underresting. As a full-time waiter, the question I always ask myself is, "Did I rest enough since the last workout?"

And sometimes, the answer was "No!", but I kept going. After the end of last year's triathlon season (blasphemy!), I just kept going, setting PRs in both a 5k and a 10k running race just a week later and observing Rule #9 while ascending rainy climbs. And then one day, after a particularly long run followed by an especially nasty shift at work, my knee complained.

I kept going - I worked through that weekend, and come mid-week, was back at the bottom of my favourite mountain, zipping up the windshell. "I'll train through, it's just a small niggle" I repeated to myself with every pedal-stroke, eventually shoving my left knee down with my arm to help it.

But I broke down completely a week later. We took our bikes down to the (ice-cold) south for a fast-yet-constant-paced ride in the quiet rolling desert hills. I was paired with a mate and his PowerTap, so the effort was steady - and I felt mighty proud that I was matching him (he's been cycling for far longer). Until, at one point, I froze completely. The knee just refused to move. I dropped, stopped, and tried to move it. Pain with every movement. Humbled, I turned around and made my way back one-footed. Oh, and it just started raining.

The month and a half of recovery from what turned out to be ITBS was dreadful. My bike was hanging above my bed, a constant reminder, and I faded out of the group. But my return will be worth it - I've since returned to nearly the same mileage as before, except my cadence is higher, the stroke smoother, and power greater. I fixed issues that I couldn't fix without a complete break of habit. That, and I treated myself to a sweet pair of Mavic Zxelliums, in white of course.

I fucking like the tale of awesomeness a lot! And it ends with new white shoes!

Time off for many of us seems to come only when we are forced, but it can be really great. I was traveling last year for eight weeks in February and March. Didn't swing my leg over a bike once. I came home and actually felt like I hadn't lost much, can't even recall any prolonged period of suffering to get it back. Breaks can be really good for you.
Buck Rogers says:

Mar 7 2012 at 8:30 pm

@scaler911
Feel free to share any photos that you might have of her, you know, to get back at her and all.
scaler911 says:

Mar 7 2012 at 8:49 pm

@Buck Rogers

@scaler911
Feel free to share any photos that you might have of her, you know, to get back at her and all.

Ha! Ya I'm sure the VMH would love that, me digging around in the photo box, looking for a photo to scan. I'll see what I can do.
Buck Rogers says:

Mar 7 2012 at 8:56 pm

@scaler911
Of course, the real way to get back at her is to get the really Compromising pics, you know.

On that note, good night all, especially a propos with this thread and rest and all!
xyxax says:

Mar 7 2012 at 9:17 pm

@scaler911
Oi. Stews. Well now she's old, while you look fantastic.
Marcus says:

Mar 7 2012 at 9:21 pm

@ChrisO
If you are Hamlet, does that collectively make the rest of us Rosencrantz and Guildenstern? If so, not very nice.

And because you are the first one to my knowledge to quote Willy in these parts you get this

Wish I knew how to embed videos.
Mikael Liddy says:

Mar 7 2012 at 9:22 pm

@Ron
That first para basically sums up where I was a few years ago, all it needed was a major injury in said sport that helped make cutting the cord easier. Even before it happened I was already resenting the structured 2-3 training sessions during the week, all day Saturday taken up either watching the club's other teams play, playing & then the inevitable debrief/socialising (read drinking).

About 12-18 months later & I'm trying to figure out why I'm so lethargic when it dawns that for the first time since I was in single digits I'm not getting any regular exercise. I'd always kept an eye out for cycling results & watched the tour each year after having it ingrained in me as a kid, kept hearing my two best mates talking about going riding & with the rise and rise of the TDU here I figured how about actually doing this riding thing instead of just thinking about it.

Nearly 2 years later I'm definitely hooked on riding, but even reading the article up top I already knew it's going to take a whole lot before I'm at the "structured" training point ever again. I know some of the aspects of how I ride like setting goals within a time frame (k's per week, climbing dist per month, etc) or working towards taking part in particular events could be considered training to an extent but at the minute I'm loving the fact that when I feel like it, I ride & if I'm not feeling it then it doesn't happen.

The way I look at it at the moment is that my 3 pastimes I love are riding, eating great food & drinking great wine/beer/liquor. The more I enjoy the first, the easier it is to justify the other two.
ChrisO says:

Mar 7 2012 at 9:48 pm

@BuckRogers
I am a bit like that at the moment. Combination of things - hard to be away from the family, as I'm sure you will appreciate, and work is a bit of a pain too.

I need to get back home but fuck knows how. As I said to my boss last week, I was sorry to miss seeing my daughter in her school play, on the other hand if she wasn't at the private school that being out here pays for she wouldn't be doing one.

C'est la vie.

@Marcus
Pretty much any quote from Hamlet is going to involve someone who winds up dead ! Except the Norwegian dude and he only appears at the end, so I guess that's Thor Hushovd.

Back on topic though, I'm intrigued by this: "One piece of training wisdom that took me a very long time and about 4 different sports to understand - you only get faster when you are off your bike."

What do you mean ? Having enough rest and recovery time ?
brett says:

Mar 7 2012 at 9:57 pm

@Marcus

@ChrisO
If you are Hamlet, does that collectively make the rest of us Rosencrantz and Guildenstern? If so, not very nice.

And because you are the first one to my knowledge to quote Willy in these parts you get this

Wish I knew how to embed videos.

Get the right clip first, motherfucker...
minion says:

Mar 7 2012 at 10:30 pm

@Marcus

I have been very lax in my riding lately - due to a number of factors such as sloth, indolence and laziness.
Not coincidentally (I think), over the last 6 months I haven't been getting a plan from a guy i pay to give me ride plans (Aussie Road & TT champ, Olympian - so he knows his bones). Without someone to "answer to", I let things slide, then riding 6 days a week dropped back to 4 and dropped even further. And before you know it, I was a street hustler giving it away to strangers for $20 a throw. Actually, that last bit isn't true - its another story entirely.
I have a two day bike ride/race coming up at the end of this month. Pain is on its way.
One piece of training wisdom that took me a very long time and about 4 different sports to understand - you only get faster when you are off your bike.

I was in Melbourne for a few days and made a point out of crash tackling Lawyers riding around on Looks when I saw them (more than you'd expect but fuck em they deserved it) but no Marcus. I guess your new job on the allys kept you off your bike. And no, I didn't run into him there either, before some other smartarse pops up.

@brett
Whoa, guess who's got their third leg on? Jeepers.