CYCLING PERFORMANCE TIPS

• Before beginning a regimented training program, develop a base of at least 500 miles of easy rides. (If you have a good winter or off season training program, you can pare down this recommendation.)

• Once you have your training base, calculate your average weekly mileage, and then plan to increase it by no more than 10 - 12% per week. This includes both total weekly mileage as well as the distance of your long ride. (This 10 to 12% figure was developed from marathon training to minimize musculoskeletal injuries. Bicycling is easier on the joints and muscles, implying that this figure might be pushed.)

• It's important to ride at least 5 days a week, and take at least one day off. Depending on your level of training (or evidence of overtraining) the seventh day is an additional intermediate mileage day or an additional rest day. For example:
  • one high mileage day equal to the event distance
  • one long slow recovery day
  • 3 intermediate mileage days
  • 1 or 2 rest days (off the bike or short recovery rides)

• Plan a short mileage day or rest day to follow the high mileage day. It should be at least 1/4 of the length of your long ride and ridden at a leisurely pace to help loosen up your muscles after the long ride of the week.

• The three intermediate mileage days should be midway between the short ride and the long ride of the week in mileage and should be ridden at a good training pace (85 to 90% of maximum heart rate). One or two of these may be interval training rides.

• The longest mileage day is keyed to the length of your event or ride and ridden at the pace you hope to maintain for the event. Many coaches suggest you work up to the length (or even 125% of the length) of the event while others are comfortable if you can ride 75% of the event distance comfortably. This is usually a Saturday ride (with Sunday as a backup for bad weather or other unexpected circumstance that might derail your training program).

• There should be an additional long mileage, recovery day during the training week.

• The final high mileage day of your training program (the week before the event) should be at least 75% of the length of the planned event.

• You can estimate the length of your training program by using your "average" long ride from your 500 mile base training period, increasing it by 10% a week, and repeating this until you arrive at a figure that is 75% (3/4) of the length of the event for which you are training.

• If you are training for a single day event or ride, your longest ride should be 10 to 14 days before the event. Then cut back on your rides the 3 days immediately before the event - short, low intensity rides (spinning) to keep your muscles from tightening up. This recommendation is not as important for multiday endurance type rides, but common sense suggests that taking a few days off (short spinning rides only) immediately before the event will facilitate maximum muscle recovery and glycogen repletion.

• Be flexible and adjust your program to your lifestyle. A rigid program is destined to fail.

• As far as pace of your rides:
  • the long ride should match your own planned century speed
  • the short "recovery" ride should be a leisurely pace at no more than 50-60% of your maximum heart rate
  • two of the intermediate rides should be at the planned century pace
  • one of the intermediate rides, preferably prior to your day off the bike, should be at a brisk pace 2 - 3 mph faster than your planned century speed.