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Most of the time, you cycle to improve your fitness, complete increasingly difficult or faster routes, and progress over time, whatever your age or starting level. However, certain bad habits prevent you from performing at your best. Here is a list to help you get back on track with your progress.
By Guillaume Judas – Photos: depositphotos.com
Cycling is an unforgiving sport that requires you to learn the ropes before diving into the deep end. Whether it’s a local race or the Tour de France. The principle is always the same: you prepare your body for effort, you strengthen it, you accustom it to the difficulties that await it.
Physical condition is fickle; it takes a lot of time to build it up, and very little to see it fade. You know this deep down, but you don’t always know how to go about it.
Few people fully exploit their real physical capacities, however modest they may be. Age is a limiting factor (the famous VO2 max is said to decrease by about 1% every year from the age of 40). But there is a significant margin between your current limits and the full exploitation of your capacities.
You can progress in cycling until very late, or at least significantly limit the regression of your physical abilities. To do this, you must commit to following a rigorous and, above all, regular training plan. What if it was enough to sweep away, one by one, the bad habits that handicap you season after season?
1. Lack of motivation
Defining a plan and sticking to it requires a minimum of motivation to ensure the regularity of sessions. Whatever the training method, the important thing is to believe in it. There isn’t just one way to get in shape and progress over the months. But when you choose a plan, you stick to it.
Of course, sometimes you have to kick yourself in the butt to go ride in the rain, get on the indoor trainer in the evening after work, or refuse a drink with colleagues.
Maintaining this motivation is the basis of all progress, but it also depends on the following chapters. There’s no point in aiming too high if your schedule leaves you no respite. Or if you don’t get support from your family and friends. Every life choice is respectable, but you must make it with full knowledge of the facts.
Like any endurance sport, cycling is hard, with few real satisfactions in the end. But those satisfactions are really worth it, we assure you. It’s up to you to find what truly motivates you: getting on the podium, losing weight, improving your time on the Alpe d’Huez climb. Whatever it is, that’s what you need to keep in mind whenever you go through a difficult moment.
2. Poor organization
If you want to progress, you absolutely must organize yourself to fit regular sessions into your schedule. No choice, and no question of procrastinating in any of your activities. These sessions don’t need to be long or too frequent.
This depends primarily on your level and that of your goal. But if you can only dedicate 4 to 5 hours a week to your sport, do it well. Don’t skip sessions, anticipate problems as much as possible, and define your priorities.
Those who regularly let themselves get overwhelmed are primarily those who lack motivation. Get your family or friends involved. Explain your motivations, your goals, ask them to respect your time slots, and in return, dedicate serene moments to them. Compromises are essential on both sides, and in this case, don’t aim for a goal too far beyond your available time.
3. Aiming too high
The best way to fail and get discouraged is to aim too high. It’s to imagine yourself completing a challenge that is too far beyond your physical or training capabilities. Those who make you believe you can reasonably complete the Étape du Tour with 4 hours of training per week are just selling you a dream.
Good training isn’t very complicated: regularity, progressive volume and intensity, to move on to the next stage. It’s impossible to go from a regional level to an Elite level in a few months, let’s be clear!
4. Making excuses
Behind phrases like “I can’t ride, it’s raining“, “My session is cancelled, I have to take my daughter to pony riding“, “My bike is too heavy“, “I didn’t sleep well last night“, you should also see a lack of motivation, organization, or fear of confronting the reality of competition.
Failure is never a problem in itself; you just need to know how to draw the right conclusions from it. This implies not having an oversized ego, not imagining yourself better than you really are, and accepting your limits.
Some prefer to live in the illusion of a supposed level, without ever confronting a race, a challenge, a route, and never questioning themselves. This is the complete opposite of someone who decides to take charge of their progress.
5. Poor bike fit
You cannot perform correctly on the bike if you are poorly positioned on it. Incorrect adjustments cause pain and discomfort, or simply poor efficiency.
Rather than investing in a second pair of carbon wheels or a state-of-the-art bike computer, opt instead for a well-done bike fit with a specialist who will adjust your bike, advise you on the saddle model to adopt, or even the type of pedals, shoes, or insoles. Essential for riding serenely and focusing on physical progress.
6. Always doing the same thing
Always sticking to the same program, every week, every month, every year, is detrimental to progress. You need to vary the pleasures, surprise the body, try other methods. The body gets used to a routine, and once adapted, it no longer progresses.
This principle, which applies to the progressive increase in workload, also applies to complementary activities or the event schedule.
7. Always riding alone or always in a group?
It is very difficult to assess your progress when you always ride solo, always in the same way. Incorporating intensity exercises will give you little indication of your real progress. Unless you have a power meter to compare your physical condition to that of previous weeks.
Training is not a punishment; it’s a way to feel better on the bike, to have sensations, and, following a basic instinct, to compare yourself to others. Riding sometimes in a group and “playing” with your riding companions is also a way to maintain and intensify motivation.
But those who are unable to go out when they are not accompanied have a real problem with motivation and attitude towards their own progress. They choose to be spectators rather than actors. They are subject to the group’s mood, sometimes passive with long sections where they are not challenged, staying hidden in the wheels, sometimes with brief, very intense sections that push them into the red.
Know how to alternate solo rides with group rides, and don’t lose track of your program if you are accompanied.
8. Not stepping out of your comfort zone
It’s not by accumulating 100 km rides at an average of 30 km/h that you can ultimately improve your level. This works for a while, when you’re a beginner or possibly for winter training. But then, you need to do intervals, work on the energy systems related to performance, even in small touches.
You must accept that to improve, you have to compete with yourself, or with others, who in any case will give you no quarter on race day.
But again, keep in mind that you need regularity (it’s better to have regular, small touches of high intensity maintenance than to suffer on race day) and progressivity (increasingly long exercises, and increasingly high intensities).
9. Riding too fast
This remark applies to those who, out of excessive motivation, train too hard, with too much ambition, or always ride too fast, without recovery periods. All of this hinders progress due to excessive fatigue.
Too much intensity relative to overall volume leads to overtraining, if not outright disgust. You need to find the right balance between sufficient volume (cycling is 95% an aerobic sport) and small touches of intensity.
Those who hope to compensate for a weekly volume deficit with too much intensity are heading straight for a wall. Their bodies are constantly overloaded with waste and do not regenerate.
10. Not enjoying yourself
As you will have understood, everything is a matter of compromise. A few regular, well-targeted efforts will allow you to progress and enjoy yourself on a bike, to experience sensations of strength and power. But also to be more enduring, to come home less tired, and ultimately to progress. Both thanks to the efforts made and because the elevation of your level will make you want to progress even more.
A few intuitive rides at regular intervals, without a sensor or bike computer, will allow you to reconnect with yourself, just for the pleasure of pedaling.
You can also allow yourself to treat yourself to good equipment. The fact that the bike is beautiful in your eyes doesn’t hurt; you’ll want to get on it even more, ride, and progress.
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