Failure Is Not A Finish Line

Photo by the blowup on Unsplash

Maybe the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing were the most fake Olympic Games in history. The outdoor events were taking place on almost 100% artificial snow. China had filled some of their teams with “citizen-ized” North Americans who couldn’t (or wouldn't) make their own national teams…

But for those athletes that were competing for binary win-versus-lose results, it was not fake at all to them.

So, when I watched the world’s best slalom skier, Michaela Shifrin, skid out of competition not once, but twice, it gave me pause as a coach and athlete myself.

Where does a high-performer’s mind take them in such dark times? There is no easy answer.

All I can counsel (and I’m not a professional counsellor in any stretch, but my coaching does touch on mindset) is to consider working on a cultivating an Olympic Mindset. Fortify yourself before life or sports throws you off-course.

Focus

Studies have suggested that visualization training can achieve results comparable to physical training.

Cultivate your mindfulness/meditation practice. In that relaxed mindful state, add in some vivid scenes of yourself performing at your best. It builds a feeling of familiarity. That will help you tune-out distractions and stress when you enter your real-life competition zone.

Optimism

The pessimist resigns themselves to all-or-nothing thinking. If a problem doesn’t have an immediate solution, then they think there is no solution at all.

Optimists aren’t seeing the world as filled with unicorns and magical thinking. But they do see the hope in the world and in their lives. They proactively think about the problems that could arise. They search for solutions. Where there is a will there is a way.

For cyclists, where there is a wheel (to follow) there is a way.

Limited Perfectionism

Pure perfectionism lives with pessimism. It’s another form of all-or-nothing thinking, centring on complete control over situations.

Striving for high standards, just short of perfect, is completely acceptable. But you must stay flexible enough to learn from your mistakes and not allow them to skewer you.

Work Hard, Not Too Hard

I’ve seen many professionals follow athletic pursuits before or after following their career paths. It’s likely because success in both requires a strong work ethic. Only you can get yourself out of bed for an early morning workout or long commute to the office.

But pushing your workouts too hard all the time will lead to metabolic collapse. That’s true non-functional over-training. It can take months to years to recover from.

You must trust the process of recovery days, recovery weeks, and sometimes a recovery month. Allow your body to absorb your training and heal.

Find Your Fun

Stay in the game of cycling and the game of life by seeing it all as … a … game.

Games are meant to be fun! You’ll feel like you’re having a great time along the journey as you find the little ways to have fun with yourself, your teammates and your competitors.

Look for the small moments to appreciate you’ve got the strength and endurance to be in this step of the race. Maybe you won’t last the whole race. But you’re here, right now. This race becomes your puzzle to solve.

If you will reinforce your dedication to training with flashes of fun then your experience will be better. Your well-being will grow.

Now I’m sure none of these points sifted through Michaela Shifrin’s mind as she sat dejected on the side of the slalom course. Yet she’s an Olympian. She’ll spend more time away from the ski hill thinking about what happened in her racing at these past Olympic Games. When she does enter another ski race – know she found her own way to reflect on these five characteristics.

Find your own way too.

 

The Pause That Refreshes

Coke had an ad campaign that first appeared nearly 100 years ago. It was the late 1920s and the American economy was cratering … Hmm, does history repeat? The Spanish Flu epidemic was also coincidentally 100 years ago.

Coke wanted an ad campaign to make itself appealing when people were struggling. Their "modern” life was getting busier. Getting ahead was becoming tough. Coke was branding itself as the way to reset and re-energize.

It’s this pause to refresh (not drinking a Coke) that's a great annual principle. Apply it to your season in the late October to early November period.

Pause. Stop. Reflect.

Go slower to go faster.

The idea is to start your mind and body onto a new training trajectory. Take some time away from structure. There's no need to be on-form for much of anything right now.

Figure out a revised or completely new way of training for you. Look at a different goal for next year. Add new training modalities to get you there.

Yes, this step back will drop your TrainingPeaks “Fitness” (Chronic Training Level – CTL). It might even crater. Don’t freak out about it.

In fact, Fitness is just a number to guide you. It can keep you from doing too much too soon (your Ramp Rate). It can be a visual reminder when you're slacking off. It’s not a particular number to chase.

But hey, keeping an open mind here, it could be a number to chase in next year’s goal. What was your peak Fitness number this year? Try your own N=1 experiment next year and beat it. See if it works for you. I won’t say it won’t.

But right now, this time of year, pause and refresh and reflect.

Grab a Coke – like the ad tells you. Or grab a coffee. Maybe a few days worth of coffee breaks here. Because I want you to have at least a week or two of little-to-no bike training. Other training is fine. But de-emphasize your bike. Be curious. Make note of at least one thing you hadn’t noticed before. This could be in your training. It could be in another area of your life.

Remember: Pause, stop, reflect.

If you join my ES Academy before the end of the year, you can book a Season Review with me. I will help you dig into your training data for the past year looking for insights. These could let you know what to do more of (or less of) next year to hit your goals.

We’ve had more than a “Great Pandemic Year” at this point. It has given us way too many moments to pause. These have all been thrust upon us by our current world-wide circumstances.

Here, now, you take charge and set your own pause parameters.

Slow down. Listen to yourself.

Get clarity and make deep self-connections. Frame out what you want 2022 to give to your amazing cycling lifestyle.

Take leadership … self-leadership. Pause and Refresh. Pause on purpose. Pause to perform.

Lean Into Your Physical Distancing

It’s clear. Physical distancing is the new way of life. For now. Let’s accept it and lean into it. Let’s not pretend it’ll be easy, or in any way natural. This is not the way we and our society around us have evolved to get along. But it’s possible to cope if you set your mind to it.

Here's one way to look at it, through the lens of the endurance athlete that you are.

I have an acronym I use for my coaching system that’s grown into my coaching business. It’s EPIC, of course! Evaluate and Envision; Planning; Implementation; Communication.

And in these uncertain times, I’ve come up with another way to define EPIC. You might want to lean on it to get through these days of living inside very small social circles.

Endure • Positive • Imagine • Connect

Endure

You are an endurance athlete. Above all, you know how to persevere to the end. Sometimes you’re in the race. Other times you’re off the back. You might get a flat. Or you crush that climb! You always find a way to keep on riding with what you’ve got right now. A DNF is not for you!

Positive

You must nurture a positive mindset to create hope for a better tomorrow. You need to take charge of your tendency to see the negative. That’s the easy way out, because evolution favoured those who looked for the tiger in the trees. The fact that you train almost daily is a testament to your positive hope of becoming better over time.

Let me personalize this outlook further. Some of you have 360° of stress right now. Threats surround your personal and professional livelihoods.

You may have heard me say – in referencing race-day jitters – replace your expectations with appreciations. In these tough times take charge! Actively look for anything positive to appreciate. Acknowledge at least one positive thing each morning when you wake up. I listen for my furnace and appreciate I have natural gas and electricity.

Imagine

Albert Einstein said, “Your imagination is your preview of life’s coming attractions.” You have a choice to stay positive, to imagine the adventures in the next chapters of your life. Choose happily!

Is there a big event to put on your calendar later this year? Perhaps you can create your own Big Ride. Each day take time to re-imagine all you want out of life. This season, this year, this decade.

Connect

In these life-saving times of isolation and physical distancing, accept and expect that you’ll need to connect with friends and family. Sure, at times in life you seek solitude … to connect with your inner self and perhaps your natural environment. But this is also a time we need to talk with each other to make real this epic time we’re all living through.

Connect to hold onto the power of community. The experiences we are all going through are hard to define. Talking through it with friends and family will help create your own perspective tempered by the real (not Tweeted) views of meaningful people in your life.

Appreciate all the technology you’ve got that makes this possible! Ubiquitous internet with many video calling platforms, besides the simple telephone call. Could you imagine how isolated this would feel with tech from 15 years ago? And consider what the poor polio patients in the 1950s or 1918 influenza victims had to help them cope. Yes, our tech is more to appreciate each day!

Through the next months (and we are talking about months), endure with a positive imagination and connect with whom you care about most in life. Our present circumstances are only temporary.

Use the EPIC framework to help write this chapter of your epic journey through life. You will get through this!

Peter Sagan Is a Smart RIDER!

I have a RIDER code of conduct. I use it myself, and expect all the athletes I coach to follow it too.

Are You A Smart RIDER?

A Smart RIDER is one of those truly dedicated Cyclists who demonstrates:

R = Respect
I = Initiative
D = Determination
E = Enthusiasm
R = Reliability

If you want to maximize your potential in Cycling, then you must be true to the RIDER philosophy.

Undeniably, Peter Sagan is a true RIDER. Day-after-day, he demonstrates this on and off his bike. If I could turn back time to my junior riding days, Sagan would be my own inspirational RIDER.

Respect

Never underestimate your opponents. Honor your teammates’ efforts. Know and follow the rules of the sport. Accept officials’ decisions. Appreciate your freedom to participate.

In the 2017 Tour de France, Sagan was disqualified for an alleged elbow into Mark Cavendish during a finishing sprint. Cav when down hard and broke his collarbone. Sagan respected the officials' decision, even after his appeal. No further drama ensued, even though much video evidence emerged in Sagan's support. Respect.

And after every victory, Sagan always thanks the support of his teammates. Despite his current domination of Cycling, Sagan shows his respect that despite being a showman, he's not a one man show.

Initiative

Own your training and drive your own performance through the process. Take responsibility for your actions to make achievement inevitable.

I like to tell athletes your coach will map the mine field, but they won't carry you through it!

To perform at the level of a Sagan, you've got to take the initiative to commit to each day's training objectives. Sagan hasn't won three World Championships by sitting on the couch between races. You bet he's out there training under the guidance of his coach Patxi Vila. In race situations, Sagan's fitness will get him to the crucial moment, but his sole initiative makes execute his ultimate race-winning move.

Determination

Focus on self-awareness and self-growth to embrace the continuous improvement of your training and tactics. Control your "monkey mind" — the emotional and irrational part of your brain that blocks performance.

If there was ever an example of pure determination, it was Sagan's suffering to complete the 2018 Tour de France, particularly Stage 19, the last mountain stage.

Sagan crashed hard in Stage 18, leaving his back and glutes a mangled mess. In Stage 19 he was in trouble on the first simple climb of the day. "Fucking hell what am I going to do today,” Sagan said. “It’s just a two-kilometer climb, easy and I was already almost dropped."

Through grit and pain, and the respectful help of his teammates, Sagan was determined to make it through to the end of the stage, within the time cut. He had to secure his record-tying sixth Green Jersey competition. “Mentally, I’m good, I think because it wasn’t an excuse for me to throw it away,” Sagan said.

A lesser rider would have thrown it away.

Enthusiasm

Enjoy what you do and with whom you choose to accomplish your goals. Be eager to ride with a smile on your face!

If you find yourself struggling to ride with a sense of joy, you need a break. Could be a small break or a big one. Life is too short to spend it Cycling just for the sake of riding.

When a break doesn't rebuild your enthusiasm, I say you're done with Cycling. Time to move on to other pursuits.

Luckily for us fans of Cycling, Sagan still demonstrates ample enthusiasm for our sport. Pulling wheelies up through hairpin turns? What more could express a sense of joy in your chosen profession? And he's always got a wry pre- or post-race comment to make. He makes me happy with the present state of Cycling.

Reliability

Your coach and your teammates hold expectations of you. You seek out those expectations. Do your homework. Show up whenever needed, on time. As a domestique, you accept your role of helping the team meet its objective, usually getting the highest possible result for a teammate. As the leader. you're committed to do your best in training and racing — always.

When you're reliable, you understand the world doesn't revolve around you. You find satisfaction in serving others. For most of us Cyclists, that means contributing to our team without whining about it. Doing the work is its own reward and needs no external affirmation.

And when you've got the guns to be a winner like Sagan? To win consistently … as in three consecutive World Championships … that requires a fierce kind of reliability, with a killer instinct to launch winning attacks. I'm sure Sagan will never take a start line intending to be pack fodder. He'll be there to race — as should you.

 
Have you committed to the Smart RIDER code? Let me know in the comments section below!

Book Review: The Endurance Handbook

The Endurance Handbook

written by Dr. Philip Maffetone
forward by Tawnee Prazak
published by Skyhorse Publishing

 

Who is Dr. Philip Maffetone?

Maffetone has a Doctor of Chiropractic degree, practices complementary medicine, and is an active songwriter. [REF: 1] He’s been coaching athletes for more than 30 years. In 1994, Triathlete Magazine named him Coach of the Year. Probably his most well-known client has been Mark Allen, who won the Hawaii Ironman Triathlon World Championship six times in seven years, the last being 1995.

Maffetone has authored, or co-authored, at least 11 books on health and fitness over the years. But he’s probably most well-known for his “Maffetone Method”, which uses the idea of Maximum Aerobic Function (MAF) heart rate (HR).

You can think of MAF HR as a revision of the “220-Age” heart rate formula. The formula becomes 180-Age, with some +/- HR modifiers for your current fitness and other health parameters. If forms the basis of Maffetone’s training method. It’s the antithesis of “No Pain, No Gain.” Many athletes feel they’re training too easily at this heart rate. But Maffetone advises them to be patient. Results will eventually manifest themselves.

The Endurance Handbook, though, is not about MAF training. It does have an appendix briefly discussing it, but the book is a much more general treatment of endurance training.

What is The Endurance Handbook About? Mind Over Movement

Along the lines of knocking down “No Pain, No Gain” thinking, The Endurance Handbook is an introductory text to starting a journey to becoming an endurance athlete. It seems to follow the medical tenet of “First, do no harm.”

Building on that tenet, Maffetone’s message in the book is to get healthy first, then get fit. And I agree. It’ll be much easier to live a pain-free life that way. Learn the motor movements of your sport slowly, deliberately, and you’ll preserve and protect your muscles, joints and tendons. 

For example, he recommends runners train barefoot so their running gait follows the most natural motion possible. Shoes add an unnecessary structure to a foot that has evolved to hit the ground bare. And he feels if only the elite marathoners didn’t have running shoe sponsorships to worry about, then a barefoot sub-two hour marathon would be within reach. Breaking that barrier could then lead to a cascade of equally fast marathons — just like Roger Bannister’s first sub-four minute mile achievement did for other sub-four performances.

However, I think his enthusiasm for a 1:59 marathon needs to be tempered. In August, 2015, The Sunday Times reported [REF: 2] that 1/3 of the Olympic and World Championship endurance and middle distance runners had given a suspicious blood test at some point during their careers. Perhaps all the knocking at the 1:59 marathon door has been enhanced a little … 

Nonetheless, after reading Maffetone’s chapter on feet I found myself padding barefoot about my house and yard more often. But as a cyclist, of course I can’t ride barefoot – that makes no sense. But I think the equivalent is paying for a really good bike fit. Get an objective view of how you sit on and pedal your bike. If you’ll be spinning through 10,000+ pedal strokes during a single ride, you should ensure each rotation is as efficient as possible. The only way to achieve that level of efficiency is to measure you and your bike – then make your bike fit you. Not the other way around.

And Maffetone advises you mind your brain too. It’s the central governor of all training and racing. Not only does it drive the neuropathways that make physical activity possible and indeed elegant, but it’s also responsible for the simple fact of getting your butt up off the couch and out the door for a workout in the first place. Maffetone presents some ideas to nurture your mind, which any person – athlete or not – would benefit from. Music is one approach he discusses. I especially liked his idea of “marking my territory” with the music I enjoy and find important to me.

Nutrition is a key natural performance enhancer for all athletes. I found Maffetone getting a little carried away and repetitive with his discussion of folate – primarily a criticism of too much folate in our diets – yet he does make a clear conclusion: “The remedy for these problems is very simple: eat your fruits and vegetables.” And finally he provides this sensible summary at the end of the Eating chapter: “Food is what powers our body to be the best endurance athletes. Don’t cheat your body and brain by eating junk food. Get into the habit of only buying healthy food – then it’s less likely to find its way into your house.” That last sentence reads a bit awkward. The premise is, if you have junk food in your house then you’re almost certainly going to eat it. If you don’t buy it in the first place, of course you won’t eat it! Some people don’t understand how powerful that simple logic is.

Problems

So my problems with the book are minor. There are some laughable editing errors, such as “attaché” where “attach” was needed. I’m not sure how a proof-reader could have missed these, unless the proofreading was farmed out to a low quality virtual assistant. 

I’m a man of action. I would have liked to see more summaries of action steps the reader could take away at the end of each chapter. But at least there's a helpful “Muscle Fatigue Checklist.” Every endurance athlete should reference it to keep their training on an accelerated pace.

Recommendation

This is a book I’d give to new endurance athletes. They won’t go wrong starting with the information here. If you know someone that’s keen on beginning cycling or running or triathlon, it would make a good gift idea. But it’s only a start. Cyclists will need more of this information mapped to them. And that’s where the services of a knowledgeable coach would be a solid next step after reading The Endurance Handbook. 

Check it out yourself at Amazon …

The Endurance Handbook: How to Achieve Athletic Potential, Stay Healthy, and Get the Most Out of Your Body

And Maffetone's full treatment on endurance training using the MAF HR method …
The Big Book of Endurance Training and Racing

References

1.  http://www.bloomberg.com/research/stocks/private/person.asp?personId=1938276&privcapId=2482488&previousCapId=82032365&previousTitle=Omthera%20Pharmaceuticals,%20Inc.
2. http://www.bbc.com/sport/athletics/33948924

How To Commit To Being A Bike Racer

When I first had dreams of becoming a bike racer, I had no idea how hard it would be to get started.

The first steps were simply to become fit. The next steps would make me work on my weaknesses, and build on my strengths - whatever those were, I really didn't know. I hadn't done any of this before!

After finding my way through a couple of months of what I thought was "training", I tried my first bike race at a club level.

It was very low-key, low-stakes. I was racing in a "C" group against riders who were just starting out like me. And my results were dismal!

We were maybe 10 minutes into the race, a basic criterium, and the corners were crushing me. I was dropping places going in, and coming out of each one... until I was off the back in a reverse breakaway of one! It didn't take too many more minutes for the field to approach lapping me. My race was over.

A Big Goal Will Put Discouragement In Its Place

Some riders might have thrown the towel in right there. Not me. I had already taken the first big step to becoming a bike racer. I had a Big Goal - a goal outside the realm of anything I had done before.

I had decided I would succeed at becoming a real bike racer. It wasn't a professional aspiration. It was amateur. And in my mind that was fine, because I had lots of opportunities to race at an amateur level. And besides, I already had a profession - engineering - and it was fun and paid me well too.

And still, I decided to become a bike racer. You can make the same firm decision yourself.

The next steps I took kept me on the path to my Big Goal. And it's what you can do too, to make your own commitment to becoming a bike racer...

One Workout At A Time

The key is consistency. You've got to keep coming back to your bike and do your workouts - whatever you've scheduled. If you miss one planned workout, that's okay. Get back on the bike the next day. But be careful, because a missed workout might make it easier for you to miss the next, and then the next... and before you know it you'll be completely off the plan that you carefully put together - just like I was off the back of my first race.

So here are 3 ways to approach your workouts that will help you stick to your training plan...

1 - Show-Up Workout

Consistent riding is the first key to becoming a bike racer. In the beginning, you serve yourself best by developing the habit of getting on your bike every day - even if that happens to be only for 5 to 10 minutes. If you consistently Show-Up, soon you'll find yourself moving to the next level.

And after you have progressed for a few weeks, you'll still have days when you feel like dumping a  workout. Don't. Tell yourself all you need to do today is Show-Up for 5 minutes. You may find that 5 minutes was all you needed to get going, and the workout actually turns into a big breakthrough, like when a technique finally clicks...

You'll need some simple Recovery rides too. Nothing very long, like maybe 20 or 30 minutes. Those are Show-Up days too.

2 - Regular Workout

Endurance and technique are the fundamental building blocks for cyclists. Your Regular Workouts will cover development of these blocks. On these rides you'll develop your consistency and discover confidence in the basic power and efficiency of your endurance engine.

3- Big Rock Workout

These are the high intensity interval workouts. For these workouts, you set your mind to performing at your absolute best. You are trying to breakthrough to your next level of power. But these are the workouts that burn your matches - even seasoned veterans can usually only handle 2 days of Big Rock Workouts in a row. You will need to drop back to Show-Up and Regular Workouts to prevent flame-out.

The Simple Strength of Habit

The worst thing you can do is blow-off your workouts. If you've seriously decided to become a bike racer, getting on your bike before work - after work - after supper - whatever time works best, your mind will serve you best when it has fallen into the habit of getting on the bike at that time of day. Committing to at least a Show-Up Workout will move you a long ways to reaching the needed level of persistent riding. It only takes about 3 consistent weeks to develop a new habit.

Focus Like a True Pro Today

You've declared your intention to become a bike racer, and you've developed the consistency to work at it. Together these form your ongoing Focus. And you'll find yourself entering races, finishing races, placing in races... and yes, even winning races much sooner than you ever thought!

Bring your Focus to shine the light on this season by answering these simple questions:

1. What big, scary race event do you want to enter?
2. When does it happen?
3. How many weeks do you have for your workouts before the event?
4. How many weeks have you been consistent with your riding up to today?
5. Decide what it means for you in each workout: Show-Up; Regular; Big Rock.

Pick a workout, and get on your bike. You'll feel so much better for taking one small step today.

By the start of my second season of racing, I won my first race. It was almost a second place finish, until I heard a small voice in my head say, "You've trained all this time and have come this far. Don't let those 2 little meters ahead defeat you!" And with that I stomped just a little harder on the pedals and hit the finish line first.

Keep consistent. Keep training.  Keep entering races. You will finish. You will podium. You will win. And before you know it, you'll be progressing up through the ability ranks of categorized racing - 5, 4, 3, 2... and who knows, maybe 1/Pro?

In need of a Training Program? Why not try MyCycling - it comes with a generous 60-day Money Back Guarantee. Just click the banner ad below for more details:

Feeling the Fitness Monday Blues?

It is around this point in January that many people fall off their fitness plans. Their New Year's Resolutions to really kick it up a notch this year, and make an effort to "Cat-Up" in cycling (move up an ability category for racing), suddenly begin to wane...

A couple of weeks ago it was easy to get up a bit earlier and get that workout done first thing in the morning... But that bed feels so warm and soft in the early morning... After work, whew! It was a really long day and that couch, that TV show just seems so much easier to fall back to...

Well, I recently read a tidy little article over on Millet Sports, that inspired me to write something a little more specific to cycling. Annabel Clark gives five points to motivate you in Beating The January Fitness Blues. Here's my take for cyclists:

1. Never Give Up!

Small set-backs will always happen to any fitness plan. Just because you've missed a workout - maybe it was two - is no reason to despair and ditch your whole plan for the year. You've got ambitions! You can easily get back on track! Grab a sheet of paper and in really big letters write, "Never Give Up!" Tape it near where you keep your bike. Hell, tape it to your bathroom mirror if you think you need to...

2. Keep Your Targets Small

You may have a big riding goal later in the season. It may not be to Cat-Up. It may be a charity ride like one of the MS Tours. Maybe you've caught the granfondo bug. But you haven't registered for anything yet this summer. Do it this week.

And then remember, those kinds of goals are so far off at this point, they're easy to put out of your mind. But you'll be so much better prepared if you keep training from today straight through to those summer goals.

To keep going now, though, you must look backwards from the big goals and see the little things you'll need to do along the way that will add up to success down the road. Right now, it's enough to get on your bike maybe four times each week. Make that your goal. Tell a few friends that's what you plan to do this week. When you hit Friday, meet up at your local pub or bar and buy them all a round of drinks to celebrate - but remind yourself not to over-indulge. You're in training after all!

3. Training Partners Help You Share the Responsibility

With a training partner, you know if you ditch your workout you'll be letting them down too. Together you've signed up for those spin classes. Together you've committed to hitting the gym for a little resistance training. You'll be expecting each other to show up. Your partner needs someone to spot for them, and keep an eye on the form they use for lifting weights. Partnerships like these really help you keep committed to your training programs.

And when the winter finally turns to spring, and the roads clear up, make sure you've joined a bike club. Their weekly rides will really keep you on track for those summer goals.

4. Try Something New

I mentioned spin classes. But you haven't tried those yet? Well, there are at least two ways to go about it. Your local fitness centre likely has scheduled and drop-in spin classes. Try a drop-in and then commit to signing up for a scheduled class.

Many local bike shops also run spin classes through the winter. You bring your own bike and trainer to the shop, set it up, and everyone all rides together. For many people that's a better way to hit the trainer a few times each week instead of staring at your basement wall plugged into your i-device...

Cross training works well too. As cyclists we train within a pretty limited range of motion. Once a week I take a tennis lesson. Not because I'm trying to become a really good tennis player, but because I like the dynamic workout it gives me, and it makes me think differently than a cyclist. Maybe you could try badminton?

Still looking for a way to build your endurance, but don't want to spend all your time on an indoor trainer? Try trail running. Try snowshoeing. Try cross country skiing. I've done them all to supplement my long rides. Start a longer session with an hour or two of snowshoeing, and finish with a half-hour of spinning on your trainer.

A strong core gives you a really stable platform for your legs to press against. Sign up for a yoga class, which will help strengthen your abs and back, and keep you feeling flexible. And feeling flexible means feeling good - isn't that what all of these fitness plans are about anyway?

5. Grab Some New Gear

So this is shopping therapy. But it works too. And I'll give you a really good reason to go shopping now - besides the sales you may find during the off-season...

It is best to start using new equipment in the off season so you can get fully used to it before your big ride events are just days away. This is especially important for any of your "contact points" - pedals, shoes, shorts, saddles, handlebars, complete bikes!

You want to try electronic shifting this year? Get it now. You'll find a new reason to hop on that trainer because it feels so cool to switch gears with the simple press of a button!


But ultimately, I'm going to take you right back to the first point in this series. It doesn't matter where you are right now in your career, in your relationships, in your life. If you are truly going after anything that is really important to you - you... just... have to... never give up!

Time Trialling Inspiration Courtesy of Cancellara

While we're all getting our time trial legs going this season, here's an inspiring video of cycling's best-ever TT hero: Fabian Cancellara.

As you watch the video, put yourself in his shoes and clip-in...

See yourself as Spartacus sitting on the hot seat in the start box during those last anxious moments before launching down the start ramp. Finally, your race is underway, and you can simply focus on "Getting 'er Done!"

Look at his leg speed. Look again closely. Think about that while hunting for your own gears, wondering if grinding it out between 85 and 90 rpm really will make you go faster than if you were to spin it out at 100 rpm.

Watch him destroy Wiggins, who seems so demoralized he ends up stopping and throwing his bike across the road in disgust. See yourself reel in your minuteman, and utterly blow by him as though he were out for a Sunday ride.

See Cancellara triumph once again, winning the battle against the clock, that same clock you race against. Only you can make it stop once you've pressed your pedal one final push over the finish line.

We all fight against the same clock in a time trial. In your next TT, it's your turn to win the battle.

Enjoy the inspiration...

See Yourself Winning - Right Now!

Action can follow thought.

A few years back, Dr. Blaslotto at the University Of Chicago conducted a study with the aim to examine how visualization can affect performance.

Here’s how things went:

A group of basketball players took part in the study, measuring their percentage of successful free throws vs. shots taken. They started by testing their initial free-throw success rates as a baseline for future comparison.

Next, the players were randomly assigned to one of three testing groups. Here's what they were, and how they trained:

1. This group did nothing, and were told to completely forget about playing basketball.
2. The second group spent an hour each day on the basketball court training their free throws.
3. The final group played no basketball during the study, the same as group 1, but they were told to spend time visualizing shooting successful free throws.

And now, guess what happened after 30 days of training like this (or not training if you were in group 1)?

As likely expected, group 1 showed no improvements.

Group 2, who worked on the court, did show a respectable 24% improvement in their success rate.

And most importantly, the third group who only visualized their practice, improved by 23%.

Success From Self-Confidence

I think your take home message from this study is to practice positive mental imaging along with your on-bike training.

Success grows largely from your self-confidence, as well as your physical preparations. When we've all trained ourselves to be almost equally strong, with only a few handfuls of seconds separating us in, say, Time Trial standings, then it is usually the bike racers with strong self-confidence that rise to the top.

Self-confidence certainly rises when you have actual race successes to rely on. However, as this study with basketball players proves, when on-bike success is lacking - and maybe it's just because you're new at this and don't have many races under your tires - then start seeing yourself winning races, making that decisive race move, right now, today, every day, and you could be on your way to handfuls of your own podium finishes.

Go To The Movies

Another great way to start building a race winning mindset is to watch bike racing in action. Go to your local races, especially criteriums, and watch how the elite riders make their race winning moves. And better still, pick up some bike racing videos, like any of the Tour de France volumes, and see how the pros pull off stage winning moves. (Here's a handy link to get you started at Amazon: bike racing DVDs.)

Soon you'll have the successful images in your mind. All you need to do is some mental Photoshopping, and paste yourself into the winning pictures.

Are You Ready To Be The World's Best?

If you're never scared or embarrassed or hurt, it means you never take any chances. - Julia Sorel

What would life be if we had no courage to attempt anything? -Vincent van Gogh

You really need to ask yourself why you're into cycling. Is it simply a social activity? Is it more for your fun and fitness? Do you really want to race? Your training should be structured around whatever your decide your ultimate goals are. If those are more fun and fitness, then 3 to 4 days a week of riding, even just an hour a day, should meet those goals. But if you want to race, then you need to be a bit more serious and courageous. You need to start thinking about being the world's best cyclist, which brings me to...

How Big Is Your World?

You really can be the world's best cyclist, as it all depends on how you define the size and shape of that world. You only need to do enough training to satisfy the needs of that world. It could be a world defined by century rides. It could be a world defined by Cat 4 racing, by Masters racing, or by elite national class racing. You decide - and then go for it!

I think many of us desperately want to believe we can be the world's best at something. So do the rational thing and decide how big that world will be. The choice is yours. You must make active decisions along the way, which brings me to...

Winners Risk Losing

We are creatures of habit. It is comfortable to sit-in during a race and react to the events around us. But if you want to be a winner, you really need to start thinking like a winner. Winners take chances and risk losing so they can actually increase their chances of winning. If you get to the finish line in a pack of 20 riders, then you are guaranteed at least 20th place. But if you could actually break up that group before the line, and get in a smaller pack of say 8 riders, then you're guaranteed at least 8th place. Where would you rather place your chances?

You Make The Move

In your next race, be a player. You make a move and try to get others to go with you. You are the orchestrator of your life, so why not be the orchestrator in your next race? You could very well end up on the podium. If it doesn't work out, pay attention to what went wrong, learn from it, write it down in your log book, and come back better prepared next time.