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HOT TIPS FROM A COACH WHO HAS BEEN THE ATHLETE
WORDS ANNA BECK PHOTOS MIKE BLEWITT, TIM BARDSLEY-SMITH
As an athlete-turned coach (who still enjoys pinning a number on intermittently!) there have been many experiences throughout my athletic life that I have only seemed to make sense of now the shoe is on the other foot. Perhaps it’s my personality of ‘I do what I want’ rebellion, or perhaps it’s been gaining a deeper understanding through coaching athletes and really having dig deeper into my understanding of physiology and sports psychology in order to deliver quality sessions that are underpinned with meaning and intent.
Regardless, there has been learning and evolution. And as an athlete and coach here are the biggest takeaways for those self-coached or coached athletes on the journey towards your cycling goals.
1. ‘HAPPINESS WATTS’ ARE THE BIGGEST PERFORMANCE ENHANCER
A happy athlete is a fast athlete. While motivation for racing may come from many sources, there is strong evidence that mood plays an important part in performance.
Look at World Champion Evie Richards, who struggled with fatigue and RED-S for years as a junior and U23 racer, only to overcome her problems, focus on fuelling well and riding happy and absolutely crushing 2021. This is just one example: there are thousands out there.
I have never met a depressed, anxious athlete who could whip out personal best performances.
And I have never met an athlete that responded well to flagellation: both self imposed or external. While a degree of drive is required to train and get results, being wildly unkind to yourself in the name of ‘performance’ or surrounding yourself with the wrong support system, is a surefire way to ride slowly and not enjoy time on the bike.
2. RECOVERY IS AS IMPORTANT AS TRAINING
If some is good, more is better, right? It’s a tale as old as time: self-coached athlete starts training, puts in a humungous 15-hour week on the bike while working full time with family commitments. Spends next few weeks in a hole wondering where it all went wrong. The thing is, not even professional athletes will do a whole week of hard efforts, or at least very rarely (sometimes potentially in a training camp situation, with adequate rest leading into the block, and following this block).
As recovery expert and former AIS head recovery physiologist Shona Halson states, “To the body, stress is stress, whether it comes from a hard workout, a competition, a romantic breakup or, if you’re a student-athlete, the anxiety of final exams”1. As such, unless your job is riding your bike, you probably have many
1 Aschwanden, C. (2020). Good to go. [S.L.]: Macmillan.
more competing demands on you than the pro athletes we watch on Red Bull streams. For most of us, that idolised 15-20 hour week is more likely to put you in a training hole than create meaningful improvements.
Likewise, within your broad season plan, monthly training cycle and weekly training program, periods of recovery (either full days off or dedicated, very low intensity recovery rides, and recovery weeks where the entire weeks volume is reduced) are integral in allowing the body to recover and adapt to the training demands. Without adequate recovery, we risk stagnation of progress and a sense of staleness and fatigue on the bike and racecourse.
The Catch-22 is that to improve your fitness there need to be periods of overload and fatigue. Stretching out duration and intensity (where appropriate) on the bike is what constitutes the principle of progressive overload, integral to creating those physiological changes that result in increased performance. Just remember, recovery is key.
3. MEET YOURSELF WHERE YOU ARE
It’s very important to meet yourself, the athlete, where you are RIGHT NOW. If you were a gun U19 that could climb the local hill in 5 minutes while you were a lightweight 55kg and you’re now 40, re-entering cycling with the baggage of family, work and physical weight that comes
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