If you’re training for an event this summer, or starting to build your fitness this is the video for you – all the things NOT to do. I’ve done so many of these so saving you the time and effort to ensure you are feeling great and ready for your event.
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greetings to another video today we are going to help you hit your goal Target event this year and that is by avoiding the five mistakes that most people myself included have made in the run up and building up to an event so me myself I’ve ridden so many different events and trained for them so I’ve done the jog dirty Rea I’ve done meor 312 I’ve done all points North which is a th000 km self-supported Ultra race and so I have put the time into training and I want you to be able to achieve your training goal on your cycling event for this year whether that’s 50k 100 miles whether it’s an ultra distance race like I am going to share the things that I have found out the hard way and also I’ve wrote in Philbert who is a bike fit physio just incredible brain of knowledge to be able to talk about I guess bike fit and preventing injuries and then also my coach Mark Holloway who owns Revolution cycle coaching who has helped get me through so many of these big tough events number one mistake is not having a plan so many people that I know just kind of sign up to these big events and just kind of like do a couple of rides here and there if you are really serious about getting your goal or doing your ride you need to have a plan one physically so that your body is able to build up slowly and gradually to do that preventing injury and secondly and I think this is the most important mentally by doing these rides leading up to it you are mentally showing yourself that oh my gosh I can do this okay maybe I did that ride maybe I can do this one so I think it’s so important to have a plan and there are three different ways you can do it and they’re going to range from having to spend money um and then having to spend nothing at all so the three different ways that I would go at looking at a plan number one is the coach route so getting someone like Mark to you know create a training plan for you you tell him your event he will give you program workouts of how to actually do I think that takes all the guest work out of it so having a coach and someone to speak to and figure figuring that out is so invaluable so the second way is is and this is unbelievably clever so it’s a a widget on the Garin Connect app or you can do it on the website so you put your event into that website and you put it into the calendar and then it will work back a training plan specifically for you to suit that workout so you’ll need a heart rate monitor and the power meter to be able for this to work so it’s just an incredible way of being able to get daily structured workouts that’s looking back at the the workouts that you’ve done and adapting that to fit you and your needs based on your workload and the way that your body is reacting so it’s almost like having a coach without having a coach you do have to have the Garmin Edge I think it’s the 540 8.40 or 1040 for this to work but if you’ve got like the heart rate monitor and the power meter it is an incredible resource and it’s free so go and have a look at that and the third way is if you’re like Katie I don’t have a power meter I don’t have a heart rate monitor I don’t really like that side of it how can I still get fitter Mark has got the perfect solution for you so I’ll just insert that clip now for something like uh the 312 for example which is a really really long ride in mior it’s going to take you several hours you want to be able to ride your bike for a long period of time so you’re going to want to be sat in zone two on your training rides an awful lot and if you don’t have any technical devices measuring what zone two is perceived effort Wise It’s a conversational pace type ride so if you imagine that you had someone next to you and you were chatting away you probably get a little bit out of breath towards the end of your sentence but it should be an easy ride and you get a huge amount of benefits riding in zone two for progressively longer periods of time so that would be my ultimate tip for potentially a longer distance event and and shorter distance events as well you want to you want in technical terms you want to push out the uh limit of your obic exhaustion so um the only real way to do that is is by riding your bike in zone 2 for longer and longer periods you can kind of cheat the system a little bit with some targeted intervals uh at Tempo for example um but if you haven’t got any of those measuring devices heart rate monitor or power meter then by just riding your bike in progressively longer periods in zone two you’ll get a similar level of uh of adaptation and you’ll push that aerobic exhaustion further back into the ride the second most common mistake that people make is not being consistent consistency is the most important thing that you can be and that is dependent on how many hours per week you’ve got to train and it also means being very specific on the amount of hours because there’s no point and I get it you get really excited before you know you sign up for an event I’m like I’m going to train like 15 hours a week for this I’m want to be so fit by the end of it and then you get two weeks in and then you’re like ah I actually haven’t got time to do this amount of training because of family commitments work commitments and so then it just completely drops off but if you had been more conservative and been like you know what I could probably do four hours a week and you can keep that consistent for say 10 weeks that is going to get you so much better results than just doing bursts of like loads of training also to be consistent I would recommend getting a turbo trainer if you are serious about your event because turbo trainer and training indoors takes all the other elements that you’ve got out so you’ve got you don’t got the weather in the equation also time limits as well so it’s so important for me for time I’m actually going to get on the turbo today cuz I don’t have time to go out and do my ride because the session that I’m doing today is probably an hour and 10 minutes indoors but for me to go outside and do it probably going to take me like just over 2 hours and that is because I need to ride somewhere to find a hill to be able to do my intervals on without having you know roundabouts to cont with or busy roads or traffic and the Turbo that I use is the um Garmin tax Neo 3M this is the comfiest vest turbo I’ve ever used it is phenomenal because it’s got movement forwards and backwards and side to side and when I’ve been on really rigid turbo trainers in the past they I just get a little bit of sess after about an hour just because there is no movement so movement is good on a turbo and honestly the 3M is phenomenal I would also recommend the tax neo2 T which is the predecessor for the 3M the m stands for movement the 2T still moves side to side and you can actually buy Rocker plates that you go underneath that but that is also a a brilliant turbo trainer if you want one that’s a little bit more affordable but it’s still got all the good benefits of being able to move the third one is not actually training for the event that you’ve got in mind I see people on straa and I know that they’ve got this specific event in mind and their training is all over the place they’re doing random sessions here there there’s no point for me example doing Sprint efforts and Sprint intervals if I’m aiming to do a 500K or 400k ride so for me one of my goals and you’ll see it coming up very soon um I’ve got a multi-day backto Back event that I’m very excited about also very nervous about so I’m going to be then doing some back toback days so that my body knows what it feels like to do a big day and then ride for a second day and while I do a lot of my training on the turbo I make sure that obviously I’m doing a lot of my training Outdoors as well because obvious obviously for endurance events I need to know what it’s like and get used to sitting in the saddle for like 10 12 15 hours power I use the garming rally pedals so they are the rs2 200s which is the road version and then the xc2 200s which is the off-road version and if you are someone that has got um a road and a gravel event you can actually change the housing so you can just buy one set and then you buy like a housing kit and so you basically effectively have a road and an off-road pedal just if just on one spindle I will leave a link to those below if you are interested also another big question that I get asked all the time from you is what distance should you do say if your goal is 100 miles and Mark is the best person to answer this question so I’ll insert that now but let’s say you’re trying to break your first 100 mile or or something like that you you want to build up your longer training rides to 2/3 to 3/4 distance in the lead up to that event so you know between 60 and 75 miles on your longer Insurance rides that that would be absolutely fine the fourth thing is and I am very guilty of this is not planning for things to go wrong like if we had a training plan and we’ve we’re training for the event that we want and it’s all running smoothly that’s amazing and we’d all be super you know our highest Fitness levels if that was the case but we have other things that come into play like work we have extra commitments at work for example we get ill or we get injured or we ride through this is I’m talking about myself you ride through a session that you’re like no I really want to do this session this is in my training plan and with an injury I had an injury and I just was like it’ll be fine and that pushing through that made me not do my event I trained for months to do this event it was all points North I had a bit of a sore achilles a little bit of a niggle that niggle turned more painful about 60k from the end and I was like ah it’s more f for me to go and find a training station I’ll just ride it back I’ll just ride through the pain that was a big mistake and you should never ever ever do that because that meant I couldn’t ride the event that year I was guttered I was so disappointed so do not ride past pain like that and Phil physio bike fit has got some really good advice on that now so I’ll insert that here people encounter illness or injury or something else maybe work and they have a training plan and the training plan is like this let be like 12 weeks long and the event is here the event doesn’t move right it’s the same I’ve been through this many times with you know free Olympics and tour the Fran every year you know that that doesn’t move but this doesn’t always run so what you should do is plan for it not to go to plan right in other words be comfortable with it not going right and what I mean by that is don’t try and play catch up so if you have two weeks off the bike and the plan isn’t here and you’ve lost Fitness don’t try and squeeze in all that training beforehand cuz the one and only thing we are certain of in the World of Sports Medicine Science is how load spikes massive quick changes in loading and that can be any form of training off the bike and on the bike they’re very closely correlated when people break down and injure you know people will really often spend money and move the D once they’re in pain and discomfort what I would say is if you can Pro be prophylactic in other words get that done before you end up with the injury nothing worse than trying to reverse back out of CIS sack of being injured you know if you can invest in the future and and basically work out hard on minute I’m going to do this event you know you know if it’s a really a lot longer than you’ve ever written before we’re going to find out the things you didn’t know riding small distance so the longer you go the harder you go that’s when the little things become big things and you don’t want them to become big things so that’s when you might need to invest you’re absolutely right some expert advice where they can say look that’s not optimal for you if we change this this would become better you know so that’s the risk you know I’m all for people doing these longer harder things and some people doing some crazy things but you know it’s and understanding what are good and bad pains you know there can be that where you can go if you ride for 312 km it’s normal to have a little bit of back pain but not back pain that means you can’t finish the race yeah we all get a bit of a saw back when we finish a long ride we might have slightly numb hands you take your hand or shake it goes away that’s fine finishing with completely numb hands that stay numb for the next two weeks that’s not good and then the fifth and final one is if you’ve done all the other four things right you’ve got your training plan you’re trained for your event you’re mentally and physically ready this is probably the most important one and I will let Phil explain I will be honest I’ve never done this because Phil has always told me Time After Time After Time never ever ever do this it’s introducing new stuff new equipment or new training or new too late in the day so the classic one you know someone gets ready for a marathon and they save the new Trainers for the marathon put them on get horrendous blisters maybe not even finish or get injured same’s true of cycling you know um you don’t want to be changing your cleats your insoles your shoes for example or introducing a bike fit change that you haven’t had at least in my rule book at least two weeks to absorb if you can be longer cuz then if you have a problem with it you’re going to know you can adapt and adjust it and you wouldn’t believe how many people have that it must be something to do with human psychology I’ll save this new thing for for best and last unless you’re absolutely sure about it that that that that way you’ve done it a 100 times before and you won’t have any ill effect on you then don’t do that bed things in before you go to the event and you can have that confidence on the start line that everything that you’ve done is there so I hope that has helped answer your questions and give you a bit of encouragement and inspiration to be able to go after the event that you want to this year and if you’ve not picked one yet choose one because I never thought I’d be able to do some of the things that I’ve done but with a bit of dedication a bit of time you can do anything that you want on the bike it’s just putting the time in building your Fitness to be able to get to that level and I promise you you can do it I promise any other questions leave them in the comments I am aware that I’ve not mentioned anything about nutrition in this video that’s going to be a whole separate video if you got any questions about that leave it in the comments thank you so much for watching and I will see you all next video goodbye
22 Comments
I'm pretty time-poor and often struggle to fit cycling in to my schedule. A structured training plan would be hard for me to stick with. I usually ride a mere ~50 miles a week, sometimes a little more, where I 'll try and ride as hard as I can. Not ideal, I'll admit.
I recently did a century ride (not my first) and it went OK without any issues. A few days later I did a club ride at a fast pace (+20mph over 30 miles) and that seemed to be OK too.
A few days later I was commuting to work, when I suddenly felt a severe sharp stabbing pain in my left Achilles just below my calf. When I arrived at work, I took a look at my leg and noticed a definite swelling in that area, which was sensitive to touch.
At the end of the day, I rode back home (probably a big mistake). That was over 2 weeks ago. I've not been on the bike since.
My leg feels OK now, for the most part but I don't want to aggravate the injury so feeling a bit dubious about riding until I know it's fully healed.
Perhaps better preparation for my rides would've prevented my injury ever occurring in the first place.
Great video as usual Katie.
#2 was really two "mistakes", lack of consistency and not having an indoor trainer for days when it's either not feasible to ride outside or you just don't feel like or have the time for it, forcing you to either not ride or have a miserable ride. As for goals, for many people, myself included, it's basically losing weight and keeping it off and getting into and staying in decent physical and mental shape–and just enjoying riding outside and being able to tackle climbs and other difficult terrain. It doesn't necessarily have to be training for a race or a week in the Alps, although of course that too if you're into it.
And, I'd say that the biggest overall mistake that people make is not having a realistic enough idea of what your goals are and how to achieve them. Such goals and your ability to attain them will evolve over time, of course, but at any given time it's important to know what they are right now. Almost everyone will make this mistake at the outset, not having any way to realistically know what you're capable of and how to get there. But with experience comes increasing self-awareness–or at least the ability to be more self-aware–and if you're not taking advantage of it and are still chasing illusions–or selling yourself short–then that's about the biggest mistake that you can make, in my view.
The next biggest mistake is overthinking things and getting neurotic about fitness. But, better to overthink things a bit and avoid costly mistakes than underthink them and get yourself into some potentially nasty situations that could cost you money, time, frustration and perhaps even your health and well-being.
Your All Points North performance still knocks my socks off. 🧦🧦🧦👏👏👏
Great advice Katie, many thanks for sharing and good luck on your next "adventure",
This was A SUPER VIDEO! 😍😍😍 So much delicious and helpful content. For me, avoiding "load spikes" is a priceless gem. I wish I had learned this decades ago. It is only now, as a more "mature" rider, that I am a bit smarter about this. But I believe I will always be vulnerable to the temptations of feeling good one day and pushing the pedals more than I am trained to do. In this regard, and with no disrespect intended AT ALL, I consider myself sort of a recovering addict. I know that sounds hyperbolic, but it helps me to keep my head on straight. Again, great job on this video. 👏👏👏
Brilliant advice 👏
Highly recommend rollers over a turbo. If you get a high end model there are usually ways to add resistance (eg kreitler resistance fan unit)
Great video again! For the Sue Ryder Brontë MTB Ride, I managed to get up big jack on my hardtail without dabbing/stopping! So a big step from training fitness to conquer the steep climbs!
Do you use a recovery monitoring device such as Whoop or Aura ring? This seems to be a very accurate way of gauging recovery. For instance, your training schedule calls for a hard day yet your Whoop score is low. Going hard when your body is not ready is a recipe for body break down and illness. If I were too train seriously for an event, I think I would buy one of these devices.
I really struggle to eat on a ride, I just don’t feel hungry on the bike or soon after I’ve done riding even though I know I’ve burnt through my reserves. I have used gels before but I really want to take proper food in and not rely on gels.
Mistake: Aiming to do a big mileage event without the necessary flexibility to avoid injury.
Absolutley agree with what you say here and that's experience. Commitment and a solid training plan are probably my best tips. Also if anyone reads this Mark recently got me ready for the FRED WHITTON and I weighed 115kg and completed it 🙂 he's worth signing up wit if you want to be in peak performance for your event
Great info … ta very much! I’m starting to manage 100+ km rides regularly so these training tips will help me set a realistic goal for this summer. PS: Celebrating my birthday today by breaking in two new tires on my mighty Giant Defy Advanced Pro 3 … woo-hoo! 🥳 🚴🎂😄
In the army we used to say the 7 P’S Prior, Preparation, and Planning, Prevents a Piss, Poor, Performance… great video.
29 rides ytd. About 1140 km. Almost all solo. Goal of 4000-5000 km with faster speeds as i get more miles on. Age 67. No events
There is nothing better than eating as much sugar as you want and building elite level fitness on the bike and having fun, Carbs FTW!! 💪💪💪
Everybody makes this so complicated. just be consistent and commit. after that the rest will fall into place.
#6 and this is for you Katie, have the appropriate clothing for conditions. Or are you taking Juliet along to bail you out.🚴🚴♂🚴♀
Duidelijke video, helemaal mee eens. Maak je doel ook niet te groot zorg dat het haalbaar is. Geeft mentaal ook een goed gevoel.
thank you thank you thank you – best cycling advices ever ! Short and right on the spot. (should be mandatory to watch before (you plan to) take part in an event)
Thanks Katie, great video. Now I want a different model garmin and a smart trainer 😂. Got a hilly Welsh ride coming up that will push me more than before so fingers crossed
I couldn't agree more with your last comment. I signed up for Chase the Sun in October last year. It has given me a razor focus and I am now just 3 weeks away from the event and I feel ready. I am nervous (300km in one go will be the furthest I have ever ridden!), but once I get going it will be a great day out.