CX Skills Days

CX season is just two months away. Want to improve your skills before race season? ALP Cycles Coaching is offering "skills days" in August.

Come alone, bring a friend or bring 5 friends. Spend an hour or spend a day learning and improving your bike handling skills in preparation for the upcoming CX season.

Don't race CX? No worries, road skills days are available too.

Become efficient at riding in a pack, saving energy in the race, mounts and dismounts, cornering at speed, riding over rough terrain, etc.

As always, with anything ALP Cycles Coaching related, the options are limitless and the prices are affordable.

E-mail Coach Alison with questions, interest, or for more information-
ap.alpcyclescoaching@gmail.com

Intensity

Yesterday, via twitter, a question was presented to me-

"How can I get more than 25 min of intensity out of myself?"

This is a good question as many races are longer than 25 min. The simple answer can be answered by math (I know...I hate math as much as most people).

You want more than 25 min of intensity but it's hard to go hard for more than 25 min.
Break it down.

3 x 10 min intensity with 8 min recovery between sets = 30 min intensity.
4 x 8 min intensity with 5 min recovery between sets = 32 min intensity.
2 x 15 min intensity with 10 min recovery between sets = 30 min intensity.
and so on. There are several equations you can use to equal more than 25 min of intensity training.

intensity - time + recovery x 3= greater overall workload

Things I've Learned

Even though I'm a coach, I'm still very much an athlete. I race bikes-professionally-on Team Vera Bradley Foundation.

Over and over again, I am learning that my own athletic success and challenges go hand in hand with my coaching business. What I learn as an athlete, I can pass on to my athletes. With this knowledge, they can either use that specific technique or tip to get better and ride faster or they can avoid the mistake all together and still learn from it.

This past week, I competed in the USA National Championships. Overall, it was a pretty big let down for me. A lot of build up and all kinds of specific preparation and no results to write home about.

However, I learned A LOT.
I continued to learn about time trialing tactics and mental toughness during a race.
I learned about course inspection
I continue to learn about disappointment
I re-learned how fun it is when your team rides and races like a complete unit
I re-learned how frustrating it is when your team does not ride like a complete unit
I learned more about training and what needs to be done at the top level
I learned what I can do better as an athlete
I learned what I do well as an athlete

8 things. 8 items I learned and can now pass on to each and every athlete I coach. That's a pretty good deal.

Need a cycling coach? E-mail Alison at ap.alpcyclescoaching@gmail.com

Go time!

June 24th
Bend, Oregon
2:42pm PST.

Think fast thoughts.
The game is on.

Bikes are Bikes

Bicycles are bicycles and learning to ride any bike better and faster will help you ride another type of bicycle better and faster. This is especially true at a young age (but is still important at ANY age).

I was lucky enough to get to ride with some of the SMBA kids last week in Nederland, Colorado. SMBA stands for Singletrack Mountain Bike Adventures and it is a really great program. These kids know how to ride their bike and they know how to do it well. Most of their skills are better than mine and I was truly privileged to ride with them.

Here's a picture of the group doing the standard "bike check" that they do before every ride. They not only know the name of every part of their bike, they can diagnose a problem BEFORE they start riding.

After a brief time at home, it's back to racing my bicycle. Maybe I'll be a more balanced rider after spending some time getting beat up by kids on my mtn bike.

©Brian Hodes/VeloImages

ALP Random Tips-Listed

ALP Random Tip #12-Learn your weaknesses so you can maximize your strengths.

ALP Random Tip #34- To race well in a time trial, one must train well on their time trial bike.

ALP Random Tip #76- do more than just ride your bike. Don't forget about your core, your active recovery techniques, and your flexibility.

ALP Random Tip #80- Nutrition is just as important as training.

ALP Random Tip #34- Learn from your mistakes.

ALP Random Tip #24- Train smarter not harder.

ALP Random Tip #21- Learning to pedal with a high cadence makes you a more efficient bike rider.

ALP Random Tip #26- There are going to be days when you don't feel good and/or fast. It's ok.

ALP Random Tip#19- Ride different bikes (ie. road, mtn, cross, singlespeed). It challenges the mind and the body and creates "freshness".

Teaching

Coaching is really a fancy name for a teacher. Here at ALP Cycles Coaching, we like to think of ourselves as "cycling teachers". We do more than give out training plans. We teach you how to become a better cyclist; something more than just a person who can ride a bike fast.

This past week, Coach Alison has been putting her cycling teaching skills to work.

First up was to guide the High Altitude Colorado Cycling Camp. Saddle hours were put in, elevation was gained, dirt roads were ridden and red blood cell count was raised. All of this accomplished while learning how to ride, how to train and how to recover at elevation.

Campers Ted and Will refueling before the climb up Super James.

Next up was the 2010 Inaugural Skills Clinic. Coach Alison rode along side 60 other riders and taught them skills such as riding in a pack, how to move up in a pack, being efficient in the pack and then she finished it off with techniques on how to climb better.

AP talks to a group about "keeping your spot" in the peloton.

Climbing a hill efficiently leads to staying with the leaders.

Post ride margs always keep the coach happy. Great job to the Get Some women for putting on a great clinic.

To continue with the "cycling teacher" theme, Coach Alison will ride with the young ladies of the Flatiron Flyers cycling club tonight. We will preride the famous "wall" climb of the Morgal Bismark race.

ALP Cycles Coaching: Cycling Teachers-more than just a coach.