What trainging do the pros do?

[RabbitFood]

Hi,

Im new to cycling, well proper cycling with a good bike I have done a lot of cycling when I was in my teens on a MTB but now I have a nice new shiny Spezalized Allez and want to start TT and racing.

Anyway I play a lot of football so not in bad shape but what sort of training would Pro cyclist, road cycling not track or would this be the same?

I would think different because Hoy needs bursts of energy where as Cav would need endurance and that's what I am after as this would help with my football.

I go gym but is there anywhere I can read up on the training for cycling or has anyone got an insight on here for me?

Thanks

 

[Will1985]

Get on your bike and ride.....lots!

There are books available such as The Cyclist's Training Bible by Joe Friel which can give you an idea on how to structure training etc. As you get more into it, you'll be wanting all the gadgets so you know your cadence and train by heart rate, then ultimately by power. However, none of these will do anything for you without spending hours in the saddle.

You're pretty much right about the Hoy-Cav analogy. Hoy's legs are going to consist of pretty much all fast-twitch muscle fibres useful for his short events, while Cav will do a lot more long distance training...the roadies will have a lot of slow-twitch muscle fibres but as a sprinter he will also have to train to be able to pack a punch up the finishing straight at 70km/h having ridden for 200km.
Only thing is, there are some long events on the track too which is why Cav is going to the Worlds.

 

[jayce]

There a lots of views on this but get out and ride,plan a route then ride it check your time, then in time it will start coming down,have a mixture of flat and hills as you play footy it should go pretty fine ,if your going for a longish ride top up on carbs the night before ,but you will have more advise off the cyclechat people on here

 

[RabbitFood]

yes of course i plan to get out and ride, i was jsut woundering if there was anything that i could be doing to boost this and enhance, and by that i dont mean cheating and getting quicker on the bike with out putting the miles in.

To be honest i love the gym and the phsical side of things and jsut want to make sure that my efforts are going towards me being better, fitter and let face it faster on the bike.

 

[jayce]

If you ride lots and play footy and gym you could overtrain then you will not get anywhere ,i used to train for years but stopped it all now for the bike ,your better off leaving the gym for a bit and cycle more then if you think you need to go back to the gym then thats your call but training in the gym gives more muscle thats slower on the bike then

 

[montage]

but training in the gym gives more muscle thats slower on the bike then

i.e. the more time you spend in the gym, the more muscle you build therefore the more you weigh, consequently the slower you go - unless you can balance out the power:weight ratio. To be honest this is no big woop unless you are planning on winning races.

There are various forms of training, one being the "more time in the saddle = better cyclist" but many people just do not have time for this, so you could attempt to look into interval training? - google or more experienced cyclechat members are you friends on this one, as I'm unsure if my interval training routines are good advise to pass on

 

[monnet]

Pro training is generally varied (distance, interval, recovery etc) as you would expect. And tailored to the events they are planning to ride. But to give you an idea of the time spent on the bike here are two recent quotes, one from Cav and one from Boonen. THey are both paraphrased as I haven't got them in front of me.

Cav: Journalists often want to go for a ride with me and when I don't want to go they think I'm being a pr1ck. But I'm not. I ride over 40 000km a year so I'm just knackered and don't want to do it.

Boonen: Being able to ride well in the last 50km of a classic comes as a result of 5000km over the winter.

 

[Ben M]

As much cardio as you can possibly do, and weights. It's strong legs that you need, but you can't have big legs without a top half as well, so you do need to work out all over.

Chris hoy can squat 230kg !

 

[montage]

As much cardio as you can possibly do, and weights. It's strong legs that you need, but you can't have big legs without a top half as well, so you do need to work out all over.

Chris hoy can squat 230kg !

Alot of discussion about weights for TdF riders - but many people think that for endurance it is best to lay off the weights...I will research this and post tonight

 

[RabbitFood]

Thanks for the all the sound advice and I have been laying of the weights the last month now as it as i was getting a bit heavy for my football and i started doing a lot more cv work.

So now its the summer and I have my bike ill look to get out every sunday morning and would like to try TT on a wednesday night at my local club, i know ill not win but a good 30 mins of hard pushing non stop can only benn good and then another 1 or 2 times depends on kids wife and work lol.

So ill prob give up gym for my and any time i feel i need to i can jsut pop along to my local for some free weights becaue i dont need a gym to run and cycle right.

Thanks again

 

[jimboalee]

Yup. Miles, miles and more miles. Up hill and down dale.

Every now and again, like weekly, you need to quantify your progress in 'Laboratory conditions', so it's the Tacx iMagic again.

Contact RedBike for details.

 

[RabbitFood]

I dont mean to be rude but i am rather stupid what do you mean by

so it's the Tacx iMagic again?

 

[yenrod]

> What trainging do the pros do?


Average of 20hrs !

 

[fossyant]

You don't need a turbo - you can do intervals on the road if you wish. The theory is like it's a pyramid - you need lots of base miles and then some 'speed' work. Hills are a great training ground.....

 

[jimboalee]

I holidayed on Tenerife in 1994. It was right on the summer solstice and at mid-day, my shadow was directly below me.

We hired a car and took a drive up to the cablecar terminus on Mt Teide. That's where Planet of the Apes was filmed. My Bro-in-law jumped out of the car and started leaping around like Galen - but almost collapsed because the air was much thinner than at sea level.

His girlfriend got altitude sickness.

On the way down the mountain toward Puerto de la Cruz, I swept the car round a bend and almost totalled an entire bike team. They were wearing light blue, so could have been Carerra Jeans, GB-MG or Mapei.

They were on their way to the cablecar station where we had been fifteen minutes earlier, struggling for breath and chucking up.

Fancy wearing sky blue, at the top of a treeless volcano against a clear blue sky Bloody cyclists.