Training & Nutrition - Maintaining form continuosly

I was just wondering how do the pros maintain their excellent form on stage races which are held day after day? have been riding for a few days and realised tha my timing is goin down together with my avg heart rate as well by over 10 beats... any way to maintain form?

Uhhhh what?

Not a pro rider, however maintaining form is something I've been working on since I began running this past winter and realized my right leg works harder than my left leg.

Here is the approach I'm using:

First I must know what is good vs. bad form. I've read and watched video to educate myself in this area. A coach or knowledgeable riding buddy could also be utilized if available.

Then I need to be able to recognize when my form falls outside of what is acceptable. With all that is going on on the bike i.e. vehicle traffic, heartrate, cadence, disciplined breathing, other riders, terrain / road conditions, anaerobic loss of thought process... it's easy to lose your spin, get hunched over, dip or raise your heel or commit any number of countless form faux pas. Occasionally I get so far gone from good form the shortcomings become obvious, other times I run through a mental list and check off each function that builds my on bike technique.

Finally, overly deliberate corrective measures are put in place to "train" my body to follow good form. Once a defiency is noted, I concentrate on correcting that problem for the rest of that particular ride while trying not to become oblivious of other aspects of riding.

My thinking is that bad habits are learned and can be changed through repetitive application of good habits in their place. Time on the bike will tell if this approach will make good form become second nature.

SniperX, I think it sounds like a case of overtraining for you. Your timing is going down, you are unable to reach your target heart rate, definitely sounds like it. How's your resting heart rate? Any problems sleeping, eating?? You were the one who did the criterium right?

The professionals, they are able to maintain their form on stage races day after day because they trained for it. They have peaked just in time so that they can perform their best in the stage race. After which, they have to go through the transition period where they reduce workload and go through a decline in fitness slightly and slowly work their way up again. You have to have a training program which is all about periodisation. It doesn't help to maintain form all the time, it doesn't work that way. At times, it'll drop and overcompensation occurs which results in better fitness. At times, it rise but it doesn't stay there all the time. If it doesn't improve, it's declining. You should train at the right levels.

Work on what your goals are. If it is stage races, train the way you should for stage races. If it is a criterium, train the way you should for a criterium. Whatever it is, don't expect too much and don't expect too little. If you are really overtraining, you should take a break from all that training, otherwise it's going to take you longer to recover from overtraining.

Well said, oxologic.... well said!

I second what he said.

Koffee

Originally posted by Koffee Brown
Well said, oxologic.... well said!

I second what he said.

Koffee

Haha, thanks Koffee Brown, I'm really honoured by what you have said. I wasn't very sure of my information but glad that I got it all right. hehe

Once again, take it easy there SniperX. :D

I dont believe that pros maintain continuous physical form. They are more careful about how and when they peak.

I agree with all the above who have said that the pros try to periodize their training rather than maintain "race-ready" fitness continuously.

I really like the way Arthur Lydiard approaches this topic. He breaks the training cycle into four phases: base building, speed work, AT (Aerobic Threshold) or tempo work and the taper.

This (http://www.runningtimes.com/issues/00june/lydiard.htm) is a sample "Lydiard" type training program. Lydiard is a running coach but this type of schedule should be easily adapted to cyclists. A HRM (Heart Rate Monitor) would be helpful for this.

This will be the second year for me on this type of training. I really like the way that each phase has a specific type of workout to support it. I have a natural tendency to run my LSD (Long Slow Distance) too fast and my speedwork too slowly. This type of regimine tends to give me just the right amount of structure. I hate having to consult a calendar to figure out what workout I should be doing. With this kind of a system the primary focus changes from month to month not week to week or day to day.

Dan

yes i agree with almost everything here.

pros have an annual cycle where they peak for 2 or 3 top races of the year with strenght-building in the winter. they also have a weekly training cylce with hard day, easy days and rest days.

a good schedule is a 2 on, 1 off -- meaning 2 days training, one rest day. there are other options like 3-1. and you can push to a 4-1. after that you in general are doing more damage than benift by training more (unless you're riding easy, but if you're riding so easy then you're not training hard enough so not gaining max benefit!)

also a "rest" day can be light spinning or it can be totally off the bike.

but definitely no more than 2 REALLY hard days (like a race or intervals) one after another UNLESS that's the race.

training breaks down the muscles and the body and you get stronger AFTER this is repaired. thus, proper recovery includsing the nutirtion and rest to allow for it is just as important as lots of training...

and overtraining makes you WEAKER not stronger as you null out the previous training benefits by distrupting the recovery stage.

note: i have my first big race in 1 1/2 weeks. last wednesday was a decent club ride, thursday a rest day, then i spent 4 DAYS of pretty hard mountain training (6000 meters or 19,800ft of climbing) with the 3rd day a little easier (was a group ride so we went slow) and today is a COMPLETE rest day. tomorrow will be antoher club ride and then assuming i am strong Thursday will be hard sprints/intervals, then Friday rest/light and then Sat and Sun hard long tours...

in general go for 1 speed/interval day per week, MINIMUM one TOTAL rest day per week and then fit in the other stuff, always ADDING recovery if your body is hurting or you are not responding to training as you should (elevated HR at rest or inability to get your HR up during training, etc)

in general: get the base fitness. then for the basic cycle: train some, then train harder and then rest and then start over again hopefully at a higher level than the last cycle.

the week before a huge race should be a "taper" week where you reduce the overal AMOUNT of training and are basically just trying to maintain your fitness without breaking down the body to make any future gains so you can reach top RECOVERED status... then for a few days to a few weeks you will be weaker than the race day peak and will have to level back the training and start back at the lower level...

as to long stage races like the tour de France, i'm not sure... i personally have never done any stage races although i did an 8-day tour last year (2000vertical meters per day) and one of the keys is to not waste yourself too extremely at the beginning - i.e. you must be so fit so that you are almost resting while the other guys are wearing themselves out and then you can be strong for the sprints, points or end races.