Big Red Tour

Here are more tips, whether you are a seasoned cyclist or a beginner, whether you are a top iron man triathlete or a new rider contemplating your first testing sportives. We have learned our elite fitness training methods through many hours and days on training camps with some of the world’s top bike riders. Here are some more points that we feel make the difference.

Take ALL your body’s signals Seriously – as a serious sportsman or woman, cyclist or triathlete, you are really pushing your body. Regularly, you are pushing your heart and lungs and legs into areas of fatigue that normally improve your fitness. But sometimes this causes levels of strain or fatigue that you should heed and respect. Overtrain, and your body will pay you back. Don’t stretch and warm up properly before interval training and you can pull a muscle. Check your waking, morning pulse. Recognise when it is higher than average. Then make that day a rest day. Respond to aching knees or strains by immediately checking your own riding position with an experienced coach; plus remember to check the alignment of your pedal cleats and riding shoes.

If you regularly suffer lower back pain, learn the relevant yoga stretches, for before and after your rides. In your training, spend more time riding out of the saddle “in piedi” and lower your gears. But do see your doctor, chiropractor and sports physiotherapist – and deal with the causes rather than the symptoms. Also try to get at least 30 minutes of massage therapy when your muscles are sore, to improve Blood flow to the sore muscle tissue and release micro-adhesions associated with muscle repair. This can be a painful but a technique to reduce soreness. Ask your senior teammates, club coach or doctor to recommend a good sports physiotherapist.

Make sure you get at least eight to 10 hours of sleep to help with muscle recovery. Muscles that have been adequately repaired will not be sore. The body repairs itself at night and important hormones are triggered to signal repair to muscle tissue. Failing to get eight to 10 hours will decrease the hormonal response and recovery will be slower. This means the muscle tissue will be sore for a longer duration.

Never increase on your previous week’s training quantities, in training hours or kilometres, by more than 20 percent above the previous week (including competition) – this is essential. Gradual improvement must be the key. Increase on the previous week at a higher level and then you will be straining your system much too far. Remember there is no quick fix. So you have to plan in time, backwards from your end distance or racing goals, to make sure you keep to this rule and start your initial build-up, early enough.

Build a roster of your own favourite training routes, with less car traffic, over one, two, three hour circuits – or more; some hilly and some flat. Again, keep it varied. Circuits should be preferred, instead of pure out-and-back routes. Just find circuits that you feel good and comfortable on. And never risk local busy roads, for the sake of some easy flat kilometres. Sometimes do your easy day on a hilly circuit. Next time use those hills for your intensive interval training. Observe the routes that good sportives follow, or the top races use. These are often testing and fun. Measure your own preferred variations on these courses, for distance and time. Then, on your own tempo rides, try to improve upon your previous times.

Alan Taylor won Elite Bike Races and trained with some of the top European Pro Cyclists. He contributes to EliteCycling Fitness (@EliteCyclingFit) and you can get lots more tips onFitness Training That Is Varied, Testing And Enjoyable