If you are new to Cycling Coaching or following a Cycling Training Plan, it can get confusing, if not overwhelming. There are lots of new words like Functional Threshold Power, Zones, Intervals to learn; PLUS you have to motivate yourself to ride a functioning bicycle AND ride that bicycle safely and skillfully over whatever terrain you navigate to on that day’s training Ride.
This post helps you understand what is important in your training and a little bit about how to use tools like your bike computer and Training Peaks to quickly assess your ride goals.
It is tempting to sit and stare at your computer for hours but that is not cycling training
- Your job as an athlete is to be motivated, prepared and focus on pushing hard when you need to push hard and riding steady and easy (enough) when it is endurance time.
- You want to be very focused on the feelings and skills and routines you execute and use the day’s workout to develop those things. Stressing over ‘perfect’ workouts is not required.
- Try to set up your bike computer (i.e. Garmin or Wahoo) so you can see your Lap Averages and Ride Averages.
- Set up your device to upload automatically to Training Peaks (and Strava if you do that) => See how here
When you go on a ride, set your intention (goal)
- If you have hill intervals planned … know what your range (zone) is for that day. This may be a distance you have covered, a Heart Rate, an RPE (Feeling), and/or a Power Number
- It is good to attach some ‘defining moments’ from your races to these key weekly workouts … if you are getting dropped when the attacks start, practice pushing a bit harder/longer each workout. Visualize yourself riding in the race as you do these intervals and as you feel the tension in your legs and as you breathe deeply to find relaxation in the discomfort.
- When you come in make sure your files upload and that you do a nice training diary log in training peaks or whatever you use. Note the WHO/WHAT/WHERE/WHY/HOW MANY ETC. Thinking about what you want to work on next time is how we get better next time. Make a note that you can pull back for the next session.
To assess the ride Many athletes can benefit from putting some time into their bike computer (Garmin/Wahoo etc) Screens and Setup
- Put a screen as ‘ride summary’ and then you can see your average HR on the ride summary screen in %MHR (you can set avg HR by BPM or %) … so if endurance ride you can see if you averaged 65-75%
- You can also setup a lap screen so you can assess each lap as you go. If you have a sweet spot interval you can see if you averaged the prescribed Heart rate or power zones quickly
In Training Peaks You can See your HR or Power (or other) Metrics overlaid with other metrics and also over your zones (These need to be set up and maintained for accuracy)
- There is a graph view where you can view the HR tracing on top of HR zones and hide the other metrics (circled in blue below)
Also in Training Peaks, you can use the pop-up window from calendar view and navigate to this view below to see time in zone and peak HR (or power, or pace) data.
