13 Months

I am not a big fan of the leading cycling magazines. If you monitor, or subscribe, you will over time (think in cycles of one year) see the following articles discussed with nothing new but a headline spin. (And please pardon all the puns intentionally added to illustrate.)

Ride faster.

Ride longer.

Ride stronger.

Ride further. 

Climb better.

Sprint better.

Draft better.

Race smarter.

Get to the podium.

Get results.

Win your age group.

Destroy the competition.

That is the twelve. There is your editorial hit list for next year. Or you can start wherever you happen to be on the rotating monthly cycle. Since this is July I suppose I should be reading up and perfecting my drafting skills, but since my next event in three weeks is a triathlon, I’ll skip the illegal activity and go right to racing smarter, the August subject du mois.

All this because someone asked me the other day why in the world I would want to ride indoors when it is so nice out of doors. 

I have been asked this before. Several times in fact. So with total transparency I volunteer the facts that I operate an indoor training facility and teach indoor cycling at our local club. Over the many years I have been doing this, it has become a very comfortable zone. I like training indoors - EVEN WHEN THE SUN IS SHINING. I will not (at this time) argue the many benefits of indoor training nor attempt to differentiate between them, with one exception.

I am training for a race. Repeat: Training. I would love to take a casual ride in the country, stop for lunch and enjoy the spectacular scenery of the Great Pacific Northwest in July, but I can get in a better, more focused, more efficient cycle specific session indoors. That becomes an important part of the macro game used as strategy to race ‘my race’ in two weeks. Here is an excellent overview on this point, the 'too easy on hard days' and 'too hard on easy days,' concept of training versus exercising. Starts at 53:20 of the video. 

I am not dissing you for wanting to ride in the sunshine, merely sharing my approach to structured, race specific training. 

I will ride a hundred miles with you once I have achieved my racing goals. But tonight, I will be in the PowerBarn, at a precise wattage for a specific time in the racing equivalent of a dress rehearsal. 

There is a major difference between indoor training and outdoor recreation. One gets you fit and one makes you fast. The other one is for fun. The trick, in my estimation, is in making the leap to seeing training as fun, as part of the process necessary for goal obtainment. The proverbial carrot dangling. 

I hope I am not appearing rude when I try to explain this. It is not hypocritical or patronizing. It is something that I need to do in order to properly prepare myself (your tactics may vary) for race day. 

Maybe we need thirteen months for this. Perhaps the January edition should be how to properly prepare for your A race, oh wait that is all of the above issues.