| Like all athletes cyclists are always trying to find ways | | | | exercises. |
| to improve their performance in their particular sport. | | | | Interval Training |
| As an avid cyclist myself I not only suggest the | | | | Interval Training may be one of the best methods to |
| following methods to increase performance I use them | | | | raise AT. Most riders will use heart rate as a guide for |
| in my own training. Whether you intend to race your | | | | this type of training. A cyclist will ride at 80-90% of |
| bike or do century rides for charity using these 4 | | | | maximum heart rate for 1-20 seconds followed by 1-2 |
| suggestions can make a big difference in how you | | | | minutes of lower intensity riding for1-2 minutes. They |
| feel during the event and how you recover after the | | | | will work toward be able to increase the 80-90% to as |
| event. | | | | much as 2 minutes followed by as little as 30 seconds |
| Hit the Weight Room. | | | | of recovery riding. At the same time you increase the |
| Cross training using weights is beneficial for sprinters, | | | | number of intervals you do in a training ride, start with |
| recreational riders and endurance riders. Weight training | | | | 3-5 and keep it up to 10 or more during a training ride. |
| builds up muscle and for speed on a bicycle you will | | | | Hill Training |
| need to be strong. Weight training and proper nutrition | | | | Along with your high intensity workouts on the bike hill |
| also tends to cut down the amount of fat on our body. | | | | training can also help increase performance. I |
| Carrying less fat with more muscle tend to make us | | | | remember reading an article a while back about |
| perform better. Not exactly rocket science but to put it | | | | George Hincapie who is pretty well known |
| simply it works. | | | | professional cyclist. It seems that George at one time |
| Ride Hard and Far, Raise VO2 Max | | | | did not feel he was much of a climber and that he had |
| High-intensity endurance cycling workouts will raise | | | | decided that he was much better at being a sprinter. |
| your VO2 Max. As your anaerobic threshold or AT as | | | | His coach told him that he should start doing more hill |
| it is often referred. AT is considered to be the best | | | | training and that he should approach each hill with the |
| indicator of endurance performance in athletes. The | | | | attitude that even though he was not real good at hill |
| idea is to ride at a level that keeps you just below the | | | | climbing he was getting better with each one he |
| AT for as long as possible. When you are just getting | | | | climbed. After several weeks the trainer asked him |
| started using this method you may find you can only | | | | what he was. His answer was a Climber. The best |
| come close for 5 minutes or less. As you keep using | | | | way to get faster on hills and mountains is to train on |
| this method of training you will be able to ride at just | | | | hills and mountains and to approach each as if it is just |
| under AT for a longer and longer period of time. To | | | | another stepping stone on your way to being a great |
| help with this you can also do some exercises to help | | | | climber. |
| increase lung capacity such as deep breathing | | | | |