Cycling Archives - Simple Endurance Coaching

Your Butt is a Steering Wheel, Make Sure It’s Got Power!

Female Athletes Need a Strong Core for Stability, Mobility, and Strength (This is one in a series of articles about how women can improve their performance with endurance sports based on the revolutionary book by Dr. Stacy Sims called Roar.) I’ve written a lot about core strength here, especially the evils of crunches and sit-ups. […]

Can Menopausal Cyclists and Runners Regain Their Competitive Edge?

Menopausal cyclists and runners can use fueling, strength, and protein to counteract declining hormonal levels. (This is one in a series of articles based on Stacy Sim’s groundbreaking book Roar.) Menopause is tough on all women. And for menopausal cyclists and runners, the hormonal changes can be life-altering. The good news is that according to […]

Around The World, More Women On Bikes Assert Their Rights On The Road

More Women on Bikes Means Safer Streets We have seen some positive come out of this time of pandemic and social unrest. More people are getting on bicycles. Importantly, more women are on bikes. The media has finally been more conscious of including women of color in their cycling adventures. And we’re learning about groups […]

Want to Feel Better as an Older Person? Lift Weights!

Weight Training for Older Cyclists and Runners Brings Better Health, Bone Strength, and Mobility Joan MacDonald was 70 years young when she started working out to deal with high blood pressure and acid reflux. Now look at her! Mike Harrington went to a personal trainer at 69-years-young to deal with weight gain and improve his […]

Your Post-Workout Yoga Routine is Powerful Tool For Improved Recovery

Yoga has so many benefits for runners and cyclists. Yoga for recovery is a great tool for creating some movement to counter tight hip flexors, shoulders, and neck. Yoga is great for building strength and mobility. We spend a lot of time moving forward in one plane. Yoga strengthens twisting and lateral muscles and movement. […]

This Cycling Adventure Was a Bit Too Epic – This Time

Railroad Tracks, Prickly Bushes, Mosquitoes, and Mud Make for a Little Too Much Challenge I love creating my own cycling adventure by finding fire roads or old logging roads. This particular cycling adventure, though, turned out to be a bit more than I bargained for. Amazing Gravel Roads for a Cycling Adventure in Sawyer County, […]

Learning the Hard Way to Focus on Process

I learn the hard way. Lessons need to beat me upside my head before they sink in. And what I have slowly learned over a 35 year career of doing endurance sports is that to focus on process in training our bodies and minds helps us become better people. As a cyclist, runner, cross-country skier, […]

Build Your Cycling Endurance

A cycling endurance training plan improves endurance capacity, strength, and speed In a “normal” year, we’d all be checking off the adventures, events, rides, and races we targeted over the winter and spring. We had used periodization and a cycling endurance training plan to plan out our training to arrive at a peak fitness for […]

Training Process Before Results Can Bring More to Life

Deprey: the Process of Training is the Whole Point When we focus solely on getting results in our endurance sports, we create unsustainable expectations for ourselves. But when we focus on the training process instead of training just for results, the habits we develop can bring us a happier and more fulfilled life. For Derek Deprey, […]

#DirtyKanzelled Ride A Great Adventure in Pandemic Times

Figuring out how to create a cycling adventure gave me purpose and structure for my riding. Laurens Ten Dam, a Dutch former professional cyclist, had planned to come to the States to do several gravel races this year, including the famous Dirty Kanza in Kansas. Since all the gravel events were cancelled, Ten Dam created […]

How to Prepare for Cyclocross 2020 – and Nationals

How to prepare for the 2020 cross season? Keep training, get creative, put in your endurance miles, and have fun with your riding.

Choose Your Cycling Adventure in the Pandemic

“Choose Your Cycling Adventure” will give you some creative ways to have fun, do something different, and still get in long training miles.

Polarized Training Offers the Best Tool for Endurance Sport Training

There has been a growing body of research shows that polarized training increases: VO2 max, your ability to use oxygen to fuel your efforts; time to exhaustion; adaptation to training stress; velocity and power. With polarized training, endurance athletes do a majority of long, slow distance work at their base aerobic level. And they do […]

Adapt Your Endurance Training in the Pandemic

Plan your training with the pandemic to look long-term A friend of mine was logging a lot of long indoor trainer sessions this winter to prepare for the Dirty Kanza scheduled for May. But most of the spring and summer races have been cancelled or postponed. The fall events are not looking good either. Moreover, […]

Fitness Adaptation Takes Four to Eight Weeks

I wish I had a dollar for every person at my gym who starts a fitness program, then, after a couple of weeks, never shows up again. Fitness adaptation is the reason so many people stop their exercise and training plans after four or six weeks. People with great intentions don’t much in the way […]

First-Time Cross Racers Finish Strong, Ready for More

The Tough Udder cyclocross race in Dousman, WI, is a no joke of a race for your first excursion into the world of cross. It’s on a farm with rough, rutted paths, steep inclines and declines, and a really muddy creek crossing. Both Amanda and James, the two intrepid souls who took my course at […]

WAC Members Get Ready for First Cyclocross Race

I wrote a long note to the people in my Wisconsin Athletic Club Cyclocross class the night before their first race, and so I thought I’d share it since it gets at what we’re all about. In the class, we’ve been working on skills and training for the past six weeks, and they’ve made incredible […]

Bicycling: A Spin Bike Workout Options to Keep Riding

If you’re stuck inside or want to step up your intervals, doing a spin bike workout is a great way to get some solid work in in a short amount of time. Bicycling Magazine posted a story about three good spin bike workouts if you are riding solo inside. They could also be used for […]

Nash: Focus, Fun, Balance Keeps Her Successful

Katerina Nash, winner of the recent cyclocross World Cup at the Trek headquarters in Waterloo, Wisconsin, says having fun and keeping a balance in life is the key to staying successful in endurance sports over decades. Nash, 41, has won world-level races in cross-country skiing, cyclocross, and mountain biking, including appearances in the Olympics for […]

A Gym Cycle Class Can Be a Great Tool to Gain Fitness

In Praise of Cycle Class An indoor cycle class at my gym was turned out to be a great option to try to maintain some fitness after I broke my arm right before final training for cyclocross season. I broke my arm July 29 and needed two surgeries to get all the bones back in […]

In Praise of Cycle Class

An indoor cycle class at my gym was turned out to be a great option to try to maintain some fitness after I broke my arm right before final training for cyclocross season.

I broke my arm July 29 and needed two surgeries to get all the bones back in place.

So for the past six weeks, I’ve had my arm in some kind of cast or splint, making it nearly impossible to do any kind of hard work outside on my bike to prepare for cyclocross season.

Meanwhile, when I started my personal training job at the Wisconsin Athletic Club, I took several cycle classes as well as taught several as a sub.

After the last surgery I turned to the indoor cycle class to maintain some fitness for the season.

While I’m not a big fan of really hot, dark rooms with loud music and a lot of people sweating buckets all around me, there is a lot of value in cycle classes. (However, we won’t talk about the smell that came from my cast after all that sweating…)

Seven Reasons Why Gym Cycle Classes are Great

Here are seven reasons that cycle classes can be a good substitute for an outdoor ride:

1. High-Intensity Interval Work

In most classes, you’ll get a HIIT (high-intensity interval training) workout that pushes your limits. You’re working primarily by perceived exertion levels, and, if you’re game, you can really ride as hard as you can.

When I sub for classes, we do a HIIT intervals of 15 seconds hard pedaling and 15 seconds off for just four minutes at a time, and we are all feeling wiped out at the end.

You burn between 420 to 620 calories an hour (according to a Harvard study) and build some muscular endurance strength, which tones muscles. You also strengthen your heart and lungs.

2. The Community

There’s a social element of meeting people, good-naturedly complaining about the suffering that’s about to happen or just happened, and joining in a kind of community willing to do a crazy workout. Everyone is suffering together, and everyone cheers each other on. You see each other walking to class in our cycling shoes and shorts and nod, knowing you’re part of a unique bunch.

3. No Need to Worry About Group Ride Dynamics

No one gets dropped. In many group rides, the pace is too easy or too hard for some riders. In a cycle class, you still ride with people, but you’re entirely at your own pace. Plus, you don’t have to worry about overlapping wheels, crashes, and that person who always speeds up at the end of a paceline and leaves you hanging.

4. Practice Needed Skills

I can practice breathing. Sometimes my asthma gets in the way of riding hard. But by just having to concentrate on the pedaling and not on anything else out on the road, I can really just practice deep breathing while riding hard.

Others can practice pedal stroke, riding while standing, or even just learning to spin at a high cadence.

5. Convenience

Cycle classes are convenient. I don’t need to worry about a helmet, where I’m going to ride, the weather, stupid drivers, or any mechanical breakdowns. I just show up for the class, ride – and then clean up the pool of sweat under my bike.

6. Low-Impact Cardio Work

Cycle classes are also really good for those who want a cardio workout, but have difficulty running or using an elliptical because of hip or leg issues. Cycling is a very low-impact exercise. Motivating Music

7. Motivating Music

Sometimes blasting EDM or rock music is the best way to motivate yourself through a tough workout, especially when the workout goes in time to the song.

Before You Go to a Gym Cycle Class

I’ll Always Prefer Outside, But Cycle Classes are Fun!

I’ll nearly always choose to be outside on my bike if I can. However, an indoor cycle workout that jacks up my heart rate with some good interval work is a worthy substitute.

(And by the way, I learned that essential oils do a decent job of covering up the scent of wet cast. The clamminess inside, though, never really went away. )

Process Before Results

Category: Cycling