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Winter Training Advice on XCRacer.com
http://www.xcracer.com/Winter-Training-Jenny-Copnall.html .................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................. Latest Training Piece on XCRacer.com Take a look! http://www.xcracer.com/Training-That-Makes-You-Tick.html
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Gaining Season End Speed...
August can often feel like a slump month in the racing calendar, and for good reason... the National Championships have past, there are fewer races due to holidays, and these anticlimax inducers toxically combine with the fact that most racers have been training towards and thinking about racing since December-January time. Even with the R&R weeks that form a crucial part of my riders' annual plan, there is no getting away from the fact that the season is almost through, and, let's admit it, we all look forward to a period after that when we have just a wee while when cycling is not the most important thing in our lives.
So, what to do? Well, how about working on some of the details you may not usually give enough time to? Spend a day focusing on skills rather than the SRM. Either enlist the wisdom and watchful eye of a skills coach or, if need be, self coach. Identify your weak areas / work area and consider your looking, footwork, body position and line choice through the section you have identified as your bugbear. Not working? Deconstruct it further, take a step back and perfect and easier (but similar) section before returning to the tougher one. Consider whether you ride right handers as well as left handers (and vice versa) as this is a common work area. Try to see yourself in the third person, as though you had your very own instant video footage available. Most of all, enjoy stopping and repeating a section to perfect a technique. Next, your mechanical skills... learn some new ones. If you have never set up your own gears / brakes etc then now is the time to try. Also check that your bike is not taking any power away from you.... gunge on jockey wheels, no lube on chains or stiff bearings in hubs, pedals or bottom bracket will all sap precious watts from your racing performance. In September you can ill afford this! Finally, that kilo you have been meaning to shed... how about making August the month to do so? By the end of the month you will feel fresher from having broken the drudgery of training, be lighter, more skillful, more mechanically aware and have a bike that is working with you not against you. I can think of worse ways to reach the final races.
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Dealing with Adversity...
“We asked for cash, not ash!” The travel disruptions caused by the Icelandic volcano undoubtedly affected many World Cup racers’ journeys to the first race this weekend at Dalby in Yorkshire. Those who did battle their way there encountered some serious disruption and stress along the way: certainly not the ideal preparation for a major race. It will be interesting to see the way in which this affected the results, but there are sure to be those who overcame the problems seemingly effortlessly, whilst others were already rehearsing their post race quotes - blaming the recent events for their poor performance.
Given that racers invest enormous time, money and energy into producing results when it matters, it pays to consider ways to minimise losses when things do not go entirely to plan, both in our racing and training. While a high level of precision and discipline is often associated with successful athletes, it can be that these very characteristics let them down during periods of disruption. So, if you have a personality where everything has to be just right, with a supremely rigid daily and pre-race regime involving exact nutrition, warm ups, bike prep and so on, you may need to consider how you will maintain focus when your preparation does not fit perfectly into your box marked “ideal”. Conversely, those athletes whose approach to racing appears more random may be best placed to deal with missed flights, poor meals and mechanical problems. Given that a highly organised athlete is often the one who achieves a greater performance level (by their very nature), what aspects of the less organised competitor’s attitude can we draw from to help during times of disruption? Can we incorporate this necessary adaptive response into our everyday training and lifestyle? The answer is undoubtedly yes. Anyone reading this who already juggles a job, a family and their cycling will already be well prepared for disruption and is likely to be very good at adapting to a range of circumstances. It is those with fewer distractions that are likely to succumb more seriously to sudden change. For these individuals it is important to experiment with a range of “hindrances” to their training. By changing diet, warm up, whether you pre-ride a course or not, how you cope with a missed bottle, small mechanical issues, time of day you ride at, sleep hours, whether you are using a heart rate monitor / computer / power device, you can improve how you cope when things go wrong. If you know and believe that these imperfect circumstances can be overcome, you are immediately much better able to cope and, indeed, overcome adversity. So next time you have a disastrous day, your cycle computer goes on the blink, or you have three flats on a ride, think of it as a useful lesson in developing mental adaptability, which may prove useful in the future. "
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