Welcome to the training for cycling area. This info is intended to help new riders and racers in their quest for training knowledge.
#1- Core stabilization- I feel this is the most important part of any athletes success. This is the foundation of the body. A strong core will support the rest of your body and allow your legs, hips, shoulders and arms to move properly. When I say core, I am not just talking about your stomach. I'm talking about getting your hips in proper alignment by strengthening and stretching the proper areas. Your hips need to be in a neutral position. A cyclist tends to get over tight hip flexors, so these need to be stretched or lengthened. People who spend a long time sitting at a desk can shorten the hip flexor and soiaze muscle. One must strengthen the back , stomach and hips to achieve core stabilization.
#2- Endurance/cardio- The core sets you up to build upon with whatever your sport is. The next step is to achieve your base foundation of cardio health or endurance. Many people move way to fast into speed or strength workouts because they feel this is what they their weaknesses are. They may need to work on speed and strength, but first a foundation needs to be built. Think about it like this. Picture a pyramid. The base is your Endurance, the next smaller step is strength, then speed, and then race speed/peak.
To start building your endurance you need to put some time on the bike. Your endurance phase should be built over a time or 3-4 months. This may seem like a long time, but it will really set up your foudation if done properly. I train with heart rate zones as opposed to watts. Heart rate zones allow me to easily monitor my body and efforts with a couple simple tools. The cycling heart rate zones are 1-5, with 5 being the highest. There are a couple test you'll have to do to determine your zones. They are described in the book we suggest below.
Endurance/base training should be done in zones 1-2. With me, that was a heart rate around 132. It can grow old riding 350 miles a week like this, but you need to set up that base before anything else can be built upon it. I can't go into specifics, but I will recommend The Cyclist Training Bible, by Joel Friel. This book has helped me more than any other. This book will help you design a training program in the proper steps.
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