Improving your cycling fitness brings a number of key benefits: you’ll enjoy your riding way more, you’ll see new places because you can go further, and you won't be 'last-man Charlie' on the hills, to name just a few. Read on for our list of 25 pieces of friendly advice, follow as many as you can, and watch your fitness soar.
The biggest gains are made by improving your diet, working on cardiovascular fitness and strength, and getting plenty of rest. There’s a lot more to it than that, but these are the three key areas. There are plenty of ways to achieve it though, from Fartlek sessions to cutting out the junk food, eliminating screens in the bedroom to perfecting your own recovery smoothie recipe.
Read on for 25 effective ideas on how to improve these three key areas, and build your cycling fitness to a whole new level.
- Six of the hardest training sessions to take your cycling to the next level
- 11 common diet mistakes to avoid while training
- How to get a good night's sleep for a great day of cycling
Improve your diet
This is always where personal trainers start, and for good reason – no matter how much training you do, you can't maximise the results if your diet is crap. We won't lecture you on cutting out alcohol, but we will suggest some improvements that, when combined, can start to add up.
1. Shed some weight to improve your power-to-weight ratio. Remember that BMI charts are hopeless for athletic individuals – they're designed to identify unhealthy weights for the general population. A body composition monitor is much better for cyclists. Numbers to compare yourself against are 15-18% for the average male, 8-10% for a well-trained rider, and 4% for an elite cyclist. Try varying between long, easy rides and short, intense ones to optimise your body's fat-burning ability.
Develop your strength and fitness
Get enough rest and recovery
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