Today’s coaches corner is very unique as its a topic that covers all three disciplines: Perfect cadence.
What’s is cadence?
Cadence is simply the number of actions taken during the course of a minute. This will either be pedal strokes on the bike, strokes taken in the pool over a certain distance or number of steps per minute running.
Thought today’s coaches corner would be very appropriate to all those who have raced recently and help aid those racing soon. Today’s coaches corner is about Post Race Reflection.
It’s very easy straight after a race to over analyse your performance and reflect in a negative way. We are all competitive in our own ways, whether with with outcome goals such as winning you age group, event or performance based such as looking to improve on your previous race splits or looking to set a PB at a given race. Taking a step back and a few hours, even days will help you better to reflect upon your performance.
Today’s coaches corner looks once more at how to make those long rides on the training bike / turbo / WattBike more bearable.
In a previous coaches corner I gave you a number of ways to break up that long run alternate on the turbo trainer / WattBike when the weather means you can’t go outside. Yes you could ride outside in the wet conditions, but naturally there’s a greater risk of injury and therefore you might take the session too easy and negate the benefits of your endurance ride. At the moment you have to sign up and then wait for your invite. They are consistently adding new content and they have recently changed the island. Its free at the moment but I guess it will be subscription based at some point.
Today’s coaches corner by Peter Bell asks how we should prepare for those early races where the weather is still cold – both in the water & on the bike.
Racing in cold whether can be more detrimental that you can imagine. Your body will use vital energy to keep you warm. A reduction in the body’s temperature can as we know lead to hypothermia which is not uncommon in races where simple mistakes are made in the name of ‘hardness’. You should always have in your kit bag certain items of kit to help combat those variations in weather so that you can have a great day in the office Continue reading
Today’s coaches corner is all about brick sessions. Jen Isaac wanted to know when is best to start doing them and whether there are different lengths according to what distance you are racing. Continue reading
With the weather on the turn, this can mean only one thing – the lakes will soon be open and that the nights become longer allowing for more mid week rides. But is this a good thing?
Today coaches corner is all about the merits of hills and / or riding the flats. Why and when will aid you towards achieving your goal.
Winter hills: winter is all about building that strong base. Making your legs stronger will aid you come the increase in intensity during the season. Riding hills takes practice, knowing what gear to use, what cadence range, how much power you should be generating. Either way, riding hills will make you stronger. BUT if you only ever do hills, then will lose that cutting edge which riding the faster fasts can do, (see below).
Today’s coaches corner is all about gears. Simon Tacx wanted to understand more about the variations in chain rings & gear ratios.
Firstly basic terminology:
Spider: this is the five probes which spread out from the centre of the cranks. Road bikes traditionally have five to spread the load where mountain bikes typically have four due to the smaller circumferences.
Crank length: this is the length of the pedal arm from the centre to the pedal. These came range from 160mm to 175mm. Depending on the length of your length the length of your cranks will vary.
Chain rings: these are the discs which go around the pedals which generates the momentum to cycle. See below for further information. Bigger = harder small = easier
Cranks sizes: 130 or 110. This is the circumference size of the cranks rings. 130 is standard & 110 compact. If you buy 110 chain rings they will not go onto a 130 crankset and visa versa.
Rear cassette: either 10 or 11 cogs on the rear wheel. Smaller = harder, bigger = easier. The opposite to the front chain rings
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Todays focus for coaches corner is all about recovery.
‘Recovery‘ for most athletes can be seen as a dirty word, a sign of weakness that you can’t cope mentally or physically with the demands of the sport & training. However recovery is key to progression and success. Rest can be more benefical to an athlete than training on through which can cause more harm than good. If you are needing that rest / recovery and try to train hard, the failure of the session could affect the mind set and this is simply avoidable by listening to the body.
