iCyclelite.com

I’ve been asked to define fartlek training. This kind of training very simply is short, sharp period training which uses explosive high intensity efforts, with full recoveries in between. It means “speed play” in Swedish. The key difference in this type of training is it’s based on how you feel.  So you put in over 60% [...]

Bike rollers are more effective because they promote balance, core training, and pedal technique.  They don’t, however, help you develop strength because they don’t offer the resistances of turbo trainers.  They may be cheaper to run though: you won’t need a spare wheel, and that makes them quicker to set up too.  Neither replaces real [...]

You can improve your cycling performance when you train in the sweetspot which is the border of the training zones of level 2, steady, and level 3, brisk.  You are breathing heavily but still aerobically. By training at this point you can cycle for much longer, and your body will learn to burn fat.  But [...]

  Cycling for fitness reasons has long been a great reason for dragging that rusty lump of metal out of the bicycle storage shed (where it was put years ago with the promise to get it out soon).  So what exactly are the benefits? It will keep you younger, and I don’t just mean physically [...]

The point of aerobic endurance training is to increase your ability to do what you want to do – go further and with more power, which equates to more speed. Let’s clear things up first though, definitions.  Anything that isn’t anaerobic is aerobic.  And the border line between the two is called your VO2 max[imum]. So [...]

To be able to use the constant heart rate training test you will need a turbo trainer, such as the Cycleops turbo trainer, and one of a range of heart rate watches to monitor your pulse.  Your trainer will need to monitor your distance too. The basic principle is to choose a constant heart rate, [...]

There are many cycling training plans available both on and off line.  You have to be careful about just choosing something off the peg however, because we are different people, with different bodies.  The most useful cycling training program is the one that is designed to fit you, which either takes a bit of careful [...]

Part of the problem of cycling pains comes down to getting the right bike fitting, and a big part of that is getting the saddle height right.  And you have probably heard that you should be sat on the bike with your knee slightly bent at the bottom of the stroke.  But there is a [...]

Yesterday I went out for an early morning ride, expecting it to be cold, and after a while wished that I hadn’t put on cycling tights as well as shorts.  First time this year.  But if it’s at last starting to get warm enough for me to stop wrapping up (I only avoided heavy leg-wear [...]

Moving up to Clitheroe I know that there is one big thing I have to face.  Actually there are a few big things. Hills. Show someone from Milton Keynes those hills and they’d probably think them mountains, but really they are just hills.  Honest.  So I wanted to shift my training rides for the next [...]

A friend of mine is undertaking a coast to coast cycle in the UK.  I had a bit of a laugh at his expense though!  Just after Christmas he was asking me how I was, and I said fine…my 5k training schedule had gone really well and I was now looking at increasing my running [...]

Even as I sit here I think I must be mad. Tonight is one of those nights when my heart is hurting.  Probably too much of that high caffeine coffee I had earlier on which my friend had left lying around last time he visited.  Or it could be a bug. The problem of living [...]

It’s just gone really cold.  Very unpleasant, and I don’t like the cold.  Bit of a wimp you see. I never used to be.  I would get up in the mornings and cycle to college with leather jacket on, even in the depths of winter. But these days I seem to feel the cold more. [...]

Road bike cycling is great for all over fitness, but what happens when you have a pretty good level of fitness perhaps because of previous activity, or because you have spent quite a bit of time losing weight and getting fitter? Here are some ideas you can try…none of them pleasant, but effective all the [...]

I came back the other day from my mum and dad’s house.  I hadn’t been that way before, but I knew that it was that little bit further away. On the other hand I also knew that it was quite a bit flatter than my usual landscape, apart from the last bit. So as I [...]

It’s been a while since I dared jump on the scales, what with holidays and the like.  In fact the last time I had a weigh day to track my progress on my own journey to lose weight cycling was 27th August.  Anyway, not to worry. I seem to have carelessly lost just over another [...]

Delayed onset muscle soreness is one of those things that you have to live with if you do exercise. In basic terms, the tightness in the muscles a day or so after doing something which makes your muscles tired is as a result of inflamation. There are various theories about why it happens, and I [...]

Part two of my post about mens cycling jerseys deals with the wonderfully exciting world of Giordana cycling jerseys.(note that this link takes you to the Giordana site where you can design your own kit, that I refer to later on…www.myteamgiordana.co.uk) Just bringing to mind the important points I made last time, any cycling jersey [...]

Pleased last night, the weight loss is now really paying off and the bike is moving swifter up the hills.  My target of course is to lose 2 stone, which is about the weight of a lower end racing bike, but right now a couple of wheels is enough to help! Distance last night was [...]

It was a fast run the other day but I wondered what would happen if I did the same distance, same route, but did so with a high cadence and much less ache in the legs. In short, I wanted to breath easy most of the way round, and only a little more on the [...]

Because of work and have to visit the grannies this afternoon, I won’t have time to go for a ride tonight, so after church this morning i took the dog out, and the son, for a run. Unexpectedly I outlasted Byron who is an incredibly fit 8 year old and can eat up a mile [...]

So I decided that after my 26mile+ ride of a couple of days ago that my regular midweek runs had better be a bit more stretching.  I haven’t got loads of time, so whilst distance was going to increase, so was speed. Not only that, but I really fancied seeing if I could match Lance [...]

Cycling cadence is the speed at which you can make your feet move the crank, calculated in terms of rotations per minute (rpm).  The right use of cycling cadence will result in weight loss, which is what we are about here on this blog, and the wrong use will have no effect at all. When [...]