One of the difficulties facing any cyclist is finding enough time to train, prepare and ride. In today’s hectic lifestyle it is pretty tough to devote 15 hours a week to cycling. Cycling can be a time intensive sport. In winter it can take a good 30 minutes to get all the winter clothes on, […]

It’s not me and it’s not snowing. But it felt as cold as this on returning to England after being in Malaysia (average 25 degrees C) After a lengthy period off the bike, it is always a great feeling to get back on the bike. Today, the weather was cold, damp and grey. I was […]

These days interval training is very popular. It also has the advantage that in theory, you can get quick with a relatively short amount of training time. In the last part of my interviews with former pro, Flavio Zappi, I asked him about his approach to training. It was an interesting answer, perhaps not what […]

My racing season is winding down, but, I’m still doing some interval training for the remaining hill climbs. These are some of the training sessions I like to do. Train like a Race One of my favourite type of interval training is just to ride up a hill as if it was a race. This […]

When you have been training very hard, it can seem counter intuitive to hold back and train less. But, scientific and empirical evidence suggests the correct tapering is the most effective way to get the best performance on the day. I believe Chris Boardman made effective use of this tapering principle, at a time when […]

Bourton on the Water in Cotswolds So far this year I have been training about 3 – 4 times a week. With this kind of training schedule, I wasn’t really doing many recovery rides because, the recovery was on the day off (when I would just have to cycle 2 miles to work) However, now […]

It is a long time since I did a proper time trial. It was not in a race, but, in training I gave a maximum effort for 16 miles on a hilly time trial circuit around Brill. When I returned home I felt quite exhausted; but, curiously it was a great feeling. There is something […]

One of the basic principles of training is the concept of stress and recovery. What this means is that we start off by riding faster / further than we are used to. This stretches the muscles beyond their previous capacity. This makes the muscles (of both the heart and legs) grow and become stronger. However, […]