Cycling Junkie

 

If you want to be a better cycling or triathlete, you need to love the bike. I remember when I began training for triathlons, I read Scott Molina saying to be good in triathlon you had to be a cycling junkie. I began putting in lots of bike miles. I still believe it.

In general,50% of your weekly training time should be spent cycling. If you are indoors during the winter, that may decrease since the quality is higher. I relearn this every summer when my cycling frequency and volume bumps up for 10 weeks. I have found it also helps improve running.

As we get older, and run volume decreases to keep from getting injured, we can get on the bike more to maintain fitness. The other benefit is that as we age, we do not tend to see a decrease in cycling performance as long as we continue to include some quality each week. 

Here are some tips to keep your bike miles fresh and interesting.

- Explore new roads and routes on a regular basis. Exploring can be fun.

- get on the trails or dirt roads to boost power and handling skills

_ use the bike trainer once a week for hard / controlled intervals

- don't ride the same routs more than once a week

Although I no longer have the time for 250+ mile weeks in the saddle, The more miles I ride, the better I feel. The hardest part is getting out the door.