CYCLING PERFORMANCE TIPS

Training Logs

You can review how you trained, what you ate and how much you weighed before a successful race or fast century. You can also trace mistakes that caused a period of poor performances and identify how you may have over trained. these entries should only take a few minutes a day and can be invaluable.

You will use two:

• Personal Performance Measures Log
• Daily Mileage Log

1. No two people improve at the same rate. 5-10% will be low responders to a training program, 5-10% will improve very quickly, and the remainder will be spread in the middle. So be patient.
2. Set realistic goals that give you the satisfaction of achievement rather than the disappointment of flailing at the impossible.
3. Don't over train. There is not only the risk of an acute injury such as bursitis or a pulled muscle, but also the physiologic changes that come with too much for too long.

Individual measures such as AT and VO2 max. measure your physiologic performance and can indicate when certain "body systems", such as the cardiovascular system, have plateaued. But it will be the combination of several measures that will give you the best measure of when you've finally reached your own personal plateau.

The personal performance measures need not be done daily. You can pick your own preference as to frequency, but several times a week is adequate. The measures to be tracked include:

• Resting heart rate - your heart rate on awakening in the morning (take it before you get out of bed and begin to exercise), is a simple but effective indicator of your level of training. It will fall as you train, but then begin to rise again with overtraining

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• Weight - weigh yourself the same time every day. Before breakfast and before you've dressed for work is probably the most convenient.

• % Body Fat - along with weight, % body fat can give you some idea of your overall fitness (Commonly accepted optimums are 7% for men and 15% for women.) If you are below these numbers, you may find yourself fatiguing early in a ride and risk developing the symptoms of overtraining. Measuring % body fat can be done very infrequently and is not essential for your training log. However, if you are considering losing weight, it is a nice way to decide if you may be overdoing things a bit.

• Time Trial - Pick a reasonable distance based on your average rides - if you ride for an hour or two twice a week, do intervals several days of the week, and then do a long ride on weekends, pick 1/3 to 1/2 the distance of your non interval, shorter rides. This is not to be a sprint ride, but a pace you can sustain. Warm up for 5 or 10 minutes, then do the ride. Record your total time for the interval - as well as your maximal heart rate near the end (a measure of overtraining if it starts to fall). This measure can be done every few weeks.

• Individual measures are optional, but can give you additional information on your physiologic status. If you'd like to track one or two, there are two blank lines on the PPML.

This log is self explanatory and tracks your mileage. Tips on where to start and how quickly to increase mileage will be covered as we go along.