If you’ve been doing ok but starting to stall with training, then here are 5 tips to get you out of that cycling rut and back on the path to improved form.
ADD VARIETY TO YOUR WORKOUTS
One easy trap to fall into is to do the same bike route repeatedly and quickly find you are losing interest to get out there and ride. You critically need variety in your training. Look for hilly rides, flat rides, shorter and longer rides. In addition to road cycling, look to try some mountain biking, fixed gear riding, track or a fun tandem rides for a while.
BUILD IN RECOVERY
Another easy rut to fall into is “diary syndrome”. With diary syndrome you are basically trying to keep up with your training diary weekly goals and forget to listen to what your body is telling you. Remember, if you start to feel achy on every ride and motivation is waning, check your recovery.
You can’t actually get fitter without letting the body build itself back stronger, so you must recover adequately from every workout you do. If you want cycling form to quickly turn around, back off training for a few days. Resume training by responding to your recovery needs first – and let the training diary follow!
WORK ON YOUR WEAKNESSES
Going out ‘training’ for ‘training’s’ sake is a common mistake and one that leads quickly into a fitness plateau. Getting faster at cycling is not just about ‘more training’ – it’s about “focused training”.
The best way to focus on training is to work on a cycling weakness. For example, say your weakness is climbing, instead of piling on more miles – ‘focus’ specifically for about 3-6 weeks on improving your hill climbing. This will quickly focus all your training and whip you into new cycling shape in no time.
SIGN UP FOR AN EVENT
A quick way to turn your form around is to sign up for a cycling event. By signing up you’re ‘committing’ yourself to completing the event. This gives a new boost in motivation and fresh perspective on all your training: shifting you out of a motivation rut .
DO INTERVALS
Doing all your rides at one pace leads to stagnation in your cycling fitness. If you’re finding your not improving and still cycling at ‘one’ pace all the time, it’s time to experiment by switching up the intensity.
As long as you’re well recovered, then doing some short interval training can give you significant results in just a week or two – flipping you out of plod pace and into feeling like a pro…Intervals are the fastest way to improve on a bike.
We all at some point get into a cycle fitness rut and need to quickly adjust, working on the above will kick start your form and get you back on track