Cycling ability improves very slowly. If you have a power meter, you will understand what I mean. So is there a way to improve cycling ability without rigorous training? This sounds incredible, but it exists.
Ⅰ. Correct riding posture
1. Keep the soles of your feet horizontal when pedaling: It can be compared to the linkage of an old steam engine or the footwork of a horse rider. During the wheel rotation, it is not advisable to keep the soles of your feet horizontal and the toes pointing down, which helps to exert force reasonably.
2. Correct grip: When riding a bicycle, if you put your hands on the handlebars, your thumbs must hold the handlebars to form a ring to prevent your hands from slipping off.
3. Change the grip position of the handlebars: Change the position of your hands on the handlebars every few minutes, and practice exerting force by holding the lower handlebars, changing your hands to the head, and the upper handlebars, so that the muscles and nerves can adapt to different ways of exerting force, and can better release force when there is wind or climbing.
4. Raise your head, lower your shoulders, bend your elbows, and let go: When riding, naturally look up at where you want to go, but don't raise your head too high to avoid excessive pressure on your hands, neck, arms, and shoulders, which may cause pain and difficulty in controlling the bike. Relaxing your body can make the bike better cope with road conditions.
5. Adjust the seat position: The seat position is very important for the rider's comfort. The seat can be tilted slightly upward to prevent sliding forward. If the seat is downward, it can be lowered appropriately to relieve the pressure on your hands, neck, and back.
II. Cycling strength training related
1. Focus on the pedal push-down stage: Many people focus on the action when passing the dead point. They want to strengthen the weak point and spend a lot of time lifting the pedals upward, but in fact, the pedal rotation can exert the greatest force during the push-down stage, so this should be emphasized.
2. Use BRO training (Big Ring Only): Maintain high-speed rotation and use heavy gear ratios, including pedaling in a sitting position when climbing, to train muscle speed endurance with heavy gear ratios and high rotation speeds, and at the same time train more powerful gluteal muscles, but be careful to do some high-speed rotation movements to balance after pedaling at a slower rotation speed to avoid losing the high rotation speed pedaling ability of both feet.
3. Perform indoor fitness bike training: You can perform efficient strength training on the fitness bike to improve your speed on flat roads. Repeat each item ten to fifteen times for three cycles.
4. Weight-bearing cycling training: Find a few friends to train weight-bearing ability together, such as riding in different queues (single, double, or a combination of single and double), and challenge each other. This can train balance ability, cycling skills, weight-bearing ability, anticipation ability to interpret opponents, and team competition strategy, and can also enhance fun and endurance.
Ⅲ. Improving physical fitness is related to endurance
1. Check your physical condition: consult a doctor about the health of your heart and blood, check your cholesterol, pay attention to heart health and understand preventive lifestyles, and master the early warning signs of heart disease, which will help improve your cycling ability.
2. Ensure good sleep: Having good sleep habits is important for improving physical fitness. For example, a rider around 20 years old sleeps for 9-10 hours during the training cycle, which can improve physical fitness and thus improve cycling ability.
3 Perform endurance training:
Steady-state moderate intensity cycling: Cycling at a moderate intensity (RPE6) for more than an hour, keeps your breathing even and your legs free of burning pain. This training can improve fat utilization, reduce dependence on carbohydrates and sugars, and enhance endurance so that you can gradually ride farther and maintain a stable and faster speed.
Enhancement exercise: Perform simple and efficient enhancement exercises, such as two 20-minute continuous training sessions, maintaining the training intensity at an intensity that can be sustained until the end of the training, using a heavy gear ratio, medium resistance, and a cadence of about 80-90 rpm. Do five minutes of light gear ratio pedaling recovery between the two training sessions, and finally end with 10 minutes of gentle pedaling in the lightest gear ratio. This will help improve physical and mental strength to cope with long-term riding and flat road efficiency.
Ⅳ. Speed is related to cadence control
1. Slow-riding training: Through field testing or asking professionals to help measure lactate threshold power and heart rate, training in an easy area below the lactate threshold will help improve speed in long-distance riding. Don't blindly pursue high-intensity training. Many coaches advocate "How can you see the rainbow without experiencing pain" which is not suitable for training to increase riding speed.
2. Maintaining cadence practice: You can adopt the "acceleration, rest, acceleration" mode, such as riding at 20km per hour for 5-10 minutes, resting when tired, and then riding at 15km per hour, and then increasing the speed to practice. In addition, the rational use of the force of the foot to drive the pedal, rather than riding only by the force of pedaling, helps to maintain the cadence and save effort.
V. Other aspects
1. Shifting in advance: Shifting in advance before climbing a hill allows the chain and sprocket to bear the burden because it is normal for the transmission system to jump teeth, rub, or fail to shift when bearing heavy loads. Just like stepping on the clutch when shifting gears in a manual car, you should also relax when shifting gears on a bicycle, both for front and rear shifts.
2. Choose a suitable route and destination: Beginners can choose flat and quiet roads to ride on, avoiding steep or crowded sections. Plan your route and destination, understand the surrounding environment and facilities, and better grasp the direction and distance to avoid getting lost or overly tired.
3. Wear cycling equipment: Wear a helmet to protect your head from accidental injuries, wear comfortable, breathable, and dry clothes, and take sun protection and cold protection measures according to weather conditions, which will help you stay comfortable during riding and improve your riding experience.
Master advanced riding skills (for specific riding scenarios):
· Aerial adjustment (off-road, mountain riding): When the bicycle leaves the ground during riding, adjust the posture of your body and bicycle, which requires more practice.
· Balance control: Master the skills of adjusting the center of gravity. On a winding road, move the center of gravity slightly to the inside to deal with the curve, and learn to adjust the strength of the pedals and handlebars at any time during riding to keep the body stable.
· Overcoming obstacles: Move the center of gravity backward in advance when approaching an obstacle, use inertia to lift the front wheel, and quickly move the center of gravity forward to assist the rear wheel when the front wheel passes over the obstacle. Repeated practice is required to master the timing of center of gravity transfer.
· Braking skills: Understand the role of the front and rear brakes of the bicycle. The front brake has strong braking force but is easy to cause the front of the car to flip up. When braking, first lightly step on the rear brake, and then gradually increase the strength of the front brake to avoid over-reliance on one side of the brake.
· Climbing skills: Mastering the correct climbing skills can make the climbing process easier
· Turning skills: Turning is a common skill in riding
Finally, I hope that all riders can enjoy riding and ride safely.