Hunter’s Power Training Blog – Shop Peaks Coaching Group

How Training Has Changed Through The Decades - Bicycling Magazine

Thu, 29 Nov 2018 17:56:00 GMT

Sports psychology, expert coaches, scientists, physiological testing, nutrition, and the means to quantify training effort and dose: each of these factors has played a part in changing the way cyclists train. But how much has training really improved? One thing that has always worked and which remains just as important today is ‘putting the miles in’. Riding plenty of miles was the guiding principle during the Forties, and it’s still recommended today. Setting aside the controversies surrounding his time as technical director of British Cycling, Shane Sutton knows about training, and he has a universal piece of advice: “Train for 16 hours a week, every week. It doesn’t matter how you do those 16 hours, but you will get better.” Is it really that simple? >>> How they used to train: Eddy Merckx’s pre-1969 Tour de France week High mileage remains a hallmark of elite cyclists’ training. What makes it so effective? Studies show that training volume has a direct effect on the physiological adaptations that underpin fitness. These include increases in blood volume and total number of red blood cells, increased cardiac output, and increases in blood capillary and mitochondria density in muscles. Doing lots of miles leads to lots of adaptations; it’s a blunt instrument, but it works. A few cyclists began experimenting with more efficient ways of training during the era of Fausto Coppi. He was the top dog during the late Forties and early Fifties, and although his overall training advice, “Ride your bike, ride your bike, ride your bike” was traditional — and a tad repetitive — he experimented with pushing harder on parts of rides to simulate race efforts.

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10 Amazing Cycling Classes Every Rider Must Try

Wed, 21 Nov 2018 20:43:00 GMT

It’s easy for cyclists to have their beef with indoor studios. The bikes often don’t compare to what you find on the road, instructors can lack true experience with the sport, and crunches on a stationary bike can sometimes be enough to make even non-cyclists squirm.

Help! My FTP Won't Go Up

Wed, 21 Nov 2018 19:22:00 GMT

CHANGE IT UP

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These Tips from Top Trainers Will Give You Serious Workout Motivation

Wed, 21 Nov 2018 18:42:00 GMT

Visualize Your Goals“Come back to your goals. Take a minute to sit down in a quiet space, reread your goals, visualize them accomplished.

What E-Bikes Mean For Your Hard-Won Fitness

Mon, 12 Nov 2018 20:30:00 GMT

E-Bikes are here to stay . Not everyone is happy about that. I used to be one of those people. Why? Because of a nagging, if not irrational, concern that e-bikes somehow diminish the currency of my fitness and hard work as a trainer, coach, and athlete.

For those who have yet to hop aboard an electric motor-assisted bicycle, e-bikes are regular bicycles with a battery-powered “pedal assist.” When you saddle up and push the pedals, a small motor engages and gives you a boost, so you can whiz up hills with a loaded backpack and cruise over challenging terrain without gassing yourself. Most e-bikes come with a power switch that lets you adjust the boost setting from “eco” (low) to “turbo” (high). These e-bikes are technically called “pedalecs,” and they feel just like riding a bike, except you feel bionic because the motor assist lets you achieve a far faster pace with far less fitness and hard work.

According to Hunter Allen , CEO of Peaks Coaching Group , who tracks this stuff for a living, if you’re already pretty fit, you have to work extremely hard for at least eight weeks to gain another 15 to 30 watts—about the amount needed to power an oven light. And even then, you can’t hang onto that peak forever. The currency of cycling fitness is hard to earn and easy to lose.It’s that last part that has raised the hackles among those who like to “earn their turns,” so to speak. Because gaining the kind of wattage e-bikes give you with a push of a button takes weeks, months, even years to develop through training alone.

Whether we win a podium position, a KOM crown, or a drag race with friends to the ice-cream store, we cyclists feel extra satisfied—maybe even vindicated—because our result took so much dedication.

Read More: https://www.bicycling.com/training/a23610389/how-e-bikes-affect-fitness/