Category Archives: biking

10 Essential Tips for Bicycle Race Training

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Bicycling Training

How you start practicing for long distance cycling race largely depends upon your current level of fitness, age, and just how much cycling you’ve done in the past. Below mentioned are some of the best tips on preparing yourself for bicycle race training.

1.Train yourself for cardiovascular endurance

Having enough cardiovascular endurance is a must for bicycle racing. During times of intense exercise, the biker must be able to generate energy for his muscles. There’re lots of ways you can train to increase this cardiovascular endurance. Some of the most known exercises for this purpose include:

  • Long, slow Distance training
  • Fartlek training
  • Pace / Tempo Training
  • Circuit Training

2. Train yourself to retain enough energy for the last minute sprint

Although elite cyclists often specialize in one specific area of cycling, a well-rounded rider is always able to ride long and hard and still have sufficient amount of a energy to sprint at the end of the race. Training in explosive workouts is a way to increase this power output, and hopefully increase the chances of you winning a race.

3. Eating right foods at the right time

It is important to eat and drink well for excellent performance and speedy recovery. It could certainly be a complicated process, and many professional athletes consult nutritionists to find a perfect balance of nutrients and calories that is ideal for them.

4. Ensure that the bike fits you

Regardless of the type of cyclist you are, having a bike that fits properly is crucial for both efficiency and comfort. For those who have had – back or knee pain, hand or foot numbness or saddle sores, your bike is most likely not fitting you properly. Good bike also plays a role in improving the aerodynamics and pedaling efficiency that ultimately makes you faster.

5. It is important to stretch

People have different views on stretching, however, because of the repetitive nature of cycling, it’s important for bikers to keep them flexible and balanced. There is a possibility of developing muscle tension in the hamstrings, chest and hip flexors, if regular stretching procedures are not followed.

6. Improve your bike handling skills

Pro riders have incredible bike handling skills. They are stable on descents and smooth through corners. Good handling is also vital when riding on a paceline, where you have a rider within inches behind you. In a paceline, the leading rider faces the air resistance that allows the following riders to save almost 30 percent of their energy. This type of riding requires tremendous skill in terms of handling the bike.

In order to enhance your bike handling skills, go on a ride with experienced riders, join local clubs and ask them about improving your handling skills or take a bike safety course.

7. Do not go on a ride alone

Training alone day in and day out could be a bit boring. To enhance your biking skills, it’s good to join a racing club that fits your abilities and goals. Being part of a team is also crucial if you wish to compete in a race. Strategies and team tactics are a big part of cycling competitions.

8 . Find some good rest

Do not underestimate the need for rest days and cross training off the bike. Rest and recovery is important for maximum performance in a sport like cycling. Sleep, massage, stretching and general downtime are often utilized by professional athletes to recover from their demanding workout schedules.

Overtraining can frequently happen with athletes that do high intensity exercises. It is essential to look for indications of over-training and listen to the body when it is demanding for rest.

9. Exercise off the bike

When training for bike racing, it’s important to get off the bike and perform some cross training sometimes. Maintaining flexibility by doing other forms of exercises can keep your muscles balanced and help you avoid overuse injuries. Training in the same manner day after day often leads to stagnation, fatigue, boredom and makes you more prone to injury and fatigue. Finally, you may hit the plateau and see no further improvement. Professional athletes use off -seasons to mix and modify their exercise routines to better their flexibility and prepare themselves for the season.

Here are some of the exercises you can do throughout the year for better cycling performance:

1 – Calf raises

Stand with your feet together, arm length away from the wall. Have fingers just touching the wall for balance. Rise slowly on your toes and after that slowly lower. Repeat 20 times.

2 – Squats

Stand with your feet about shoulder width apart. Hands on hips. Keep your back straight as well as your head up as you slowly lower yourself so that your knees are bent at 90 degrees. Then rise so your knees are locked. Repeat 20 times.

3 – Leg extensions

Take a seat on high bench with feet hanging and knee backs right on the edge. Sit back with your hands supporting you from behind. While keeping the back of the knee on the seat, slowly raise your left foot so that it becomes straight and then lower it back. Repeat 10 times. Switch legs and repeat.

These exercises are made to strengthen specific muscle groups. Initially, just use your own body weight. Later, small weights can be added to your ankles or rucksacks. The concept behind the circuit would be to complete each exercise and move on to the one following. Once all exercises are completed, you will start again and complete the circuit. This needs to be done 3,4 or 5 times. Number of repetitions for each exercise can also be increased. It is essential to stretch both before and after the workout to keep muscles loose and long, not short and tight.

10. Use clothing that is specifically designed for cycling

Cycling clothing may sound a bit strange in the beginning, but these clothes do serve the purpose. These tight fitting clothes reduce the drag and increase visibility. Shorts with special pads are designed to provide you with extra comfort on the saddle and eliminate chaffing.

Some of the essential gear one must have in his cycling kit include:

Bike shoes

These shoes are designed for extra safety and efficiency. Some of these shoes come with cleats that gets attached to the pedal with a click. This provides you with extra balance.

Bike Helmet

The helmet is a mandatory piece of safety equipment. No bike race will allow a rider without a helmet.

While you might never make it to the Tour de France , implementing these guidelines in your training will certainly help you perform better in bicycle races.

Mountain Bike Racing Methods

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When participating in the races is very crucial to possess a method adapted towards the route duration and hardness. The strategy should be simple and adapted to each and every student component.

Extremely nicely review terrain, climate, distance, and the degree of training your opponents. The technique has thought prior to the race but can make changes and before the begin.

Use a clock cycle for creating a strategy but not as precise as he grew to become addicted.

Whenever you set your last-minute ahead of the race loosen up, do some stretching movements and examine the opponents who’re planning for his or her flip to race.

Style race – when the race is downhill technique has to be something like “pedal as difficult as can and try to not hit any trees.” For brief races it is possible to try some thing like “Sprint within the first 3 kilometers, a continued constant pace, maintaining a tiny reserve of power for your last. For any marathon fifty km you are able to attempt some thing like: “A speedy start off although not exhausting, maintain a great speed and attempt to conquer opponents in important locations slopes, descents, tough places.”

Land – is land soaked with drinking water? Tough and full of rocks? Suspension adjusts resistance in terms of race and race strategies depending on the terrain. A competition will take place on a sodden area is a lot more tiring than 1 which requires location on dry land.

Weather: – A to rain? Ought to take into account and also the wind? For flights longer time and impacts what type of food you’ll want to have the race, on scorching days you will need a lot more liquid and very easily digestible food.

Distance – How typically do you really feel soon after you go a distance related towards the race? Have you eaten an ample quantity of calories for that contest? Forcing folks to overtake in the race or have to possess a powerful property and create a difference through the beginning?

Opponents – among them individuals there much better than you? In case you are and you are as well lazy to devise a plan exactly where all you’ve to complete is sit next to them during the race and attempted to overtake in the last sprint when they feel they have weak moments and forces don’t hesitate route passing .

Physical: – Did you do serious preparation just before the race? Points like “Heart Price Monitor” diet programs high in carbohydrates or power training will make the distinction when they mix with a well believed out strategy.

Diet: – how long will the race? In case you think you might have a bicycle much more than an hour when choices are simple, you consume with you or lose.

Instead they are points that enable you to correctly approach a mountain bike race.

In street racing issues are distinct. There exists a team leader and even a automobile method.

In mountain biking it’s you, your bike and your opponents.

Killing Time Between Races

We travel a lot from race to race, logging a lot of miles in the team van. We like to kill time by playing computer games. Some of us are big MMO fans, playing a lot of games like World of Warcraft and Rift. Tony, who has kids, plays Poptropica with them. His kids are talking a lot about Vampire’s Curse Island, one of the new quests in the game.

We also play a lot of cards. Hearts is the main game of choice right now.

Bicycle Racing Suggestions

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Bicycle racing might be a tough sport. It is frequent information that the more time bike races are quite bodily demanding, but even when you race over the shorter distances you will still be confronted with the strains around the body from coaching. For this cause the psychological facet of cycling is quite critical, as concentrate and willpower become valuable weapons in the racers armoury. Cycling is 1 sport where physical capability will only get you to date, which retains the taking part in area fairly even and enables probably the most dedicated riders to climb the ranks inside the racing world. So what would be the weapons that a cyclist can use to forge their way to the best?

Persistence – Possibly the greatest skill a cyclist can create. In most other sports activities, athletes can attain success at a very youthful age. How often do we see college children profitable tennis grand-slam titles, 14 12 months aged swimmers using property Olympic gold medals, teenage football and basketball players becoming instant stars. Cycling just isn’t such as this, and it frequently requires riders until their mid-twenties to reach the pinnacle in a lot of cycling disciplines. Patience is crucial on this front exactly where a rider ought to not anticipate instant good results, and likewise crucial to get as they are going to knowledge many ups and downs in their cycling career. So never ever give up and preserve persisting, since a quitter is guaranteed to win nothing.

Goal Placing – To be profitable, a cyclist ought to maintain one eye on the bigger image, and know what they need to attain within their cycling profession. To attain a specific degree in cycling performance, you must set up what it’s going to consider to get there, and devise a very clear plan to help you attain it. Aside from setting greatest objectives and profession objectives, it is also worthwhile to set more compact milestone objectives. Achieving milestones is a great strategy to build momentum and can offer you a clearer picture of what you will be able to achieve inside the long-term, and what goals may be unrealistic. A novice rider can not expect to start cycling and win the Tour de France in their first yr, but if they instead concentrate on more achievable milestones, they are able to build on them and use this information to understand which locations they must focus on in training.

Training – Just such as the previous saying ‘practice helps make perfect’, a cyclist wants to be dedicated to training to attain the pinnacle in bike racing. Some people might be aware that a five yr aged understands the best way to pedal, so just how much can coaching enhance your pedaling ability? Well training in cycling just isn’t so a lot to boost abilities, but relatively to improve the cyclists bodily conditioning. Continuous riding will aid to create the proper parts from the entire body, which includes the legs as well as the lungs. In case you can pedal quicker, tougher, and for extended, then you will be normally going to become a greater rider and accomplish improved race outcomes.

Expertise – This is a critical factor for cyclists, as it’s the most effective strategy to learn tactics and methods to use inside races. Reading guides or talking with coaches can only advantage you to a restricted degree, whilst having the ingrained knowledge of what to complete and what not to do in particular race situations is invaluable. Despite the fact that cycling is definitely an individual activity, it’s in contrast to the others inside the sense that other competitors can possess a main effect in your efficiency. A runner within a 100m sprint or a marathon will have a fair concept of what time they are going to run, but in cycling your times in training is going to be really diverse from those within a race, as quite a few diverse elements arrive into play with other riders around the monitor. This can be where expertise is extremely valuable, and may assist a rider obtain the most effective result for that circumstances that befall them.

Perspective – Where there are two riders with equal encounter and equal capacity, it truly is often their attitudes which set them apart. Having that intense determination to win the race will assist you to to get 110% out of your physique and stay ahead from the pack. We frequently listen to of runners who’re invested and running on coronary heart or running on emotion, as well as the very same can hold true for cyclists. When the legs are tired and there isn’t any juice still left within the tank, sheer willpower is what can drag a cyclist across the line in very first place. Perspective is also crucial when issues do not go to program, either in the course of or after a race. Whether it’s not giving up in the course of a race, or if you finish within the information that often it really is just not your day, it is critical to not get discouraged at any stage. Should you can remain positive at all instances, then that may maintain you in excellent stead during your cycling profession.

Aside from these five weapons a cyclist can create, you can find a couple of simpler suggestions which can be accomplished instantly. Should you be within a auto race, you are going to by natural means push and race in a leading efficiency car, and also the same goes for cycling. If you do not have the best racing gear, it puts you at a distinct downside. Ensure you’ve a leading quality racing bike and , due to the fact in case your competitors have and also you don’t, your five weapons will probably be like blunt swords.