As a cycling enthusiast, you must first have the ability to continue riding a training distance at a certain speed. Although leisurely cycling can also develop aerobic metabolism, when faced with headwinds, slopes, or fast cycling, you will feel strenuous, panting, and your legs will no longer be at your disposal. How can we increase the speed of riding and achieve fitness, fat loss and aerobic exercise?
According to my personal cycling experience for many years, the training principles that should be followed are:
(1) Improve cardiopulmonary endurance;
(2) Strengthen the ability of aerobic exercise;
(3) Increase the endurance of muscles.
Cardiorespiratory capacity is the foundation, muscle endurance is improved, and will persistence is fundamental. If the three abilities can be fully developed, the cyclist will enter a new stage.
Improve cardiopulmonary muscle energy
First of all, you must measure your own heart rate. The lowest heart rate can be measured before getting up in the morning. Of course, the highest heart rate is best if you have a heart rate monitor. If you don’t have a watch, you can use a local method, such as riding a kilometer fast (after warming up) and immediately measuring your own pulse. The number of beats per minute. After measuring the minimum and maximum heart rate, train from low to high between the two values (cycling, running, climbing, swimming). The training process should be more than 45 minutes, and the maximum heart rate after warming up is 65% to 80 %.
That is, measure your own pulse in the morning after training. If it is higher than the pulse (heart rate) of the previous day, it indicates that fatigue has not recovered and can only be used for relaxing activities. If normal, you can retrain as planned. When the heart rate of the first morning is lower than the normal value (the value measured before training), it indicates that the next level of training can be carried out.
In my cycling training, especially when climbing hills, the breathing rate and depth will increase as we get closer to the slope, which we often say is out of breath. The reason for the difficulty in breathing is that the muscles need more at this time. Oxygen supply. Don’t hold your breath in this situation. You must use your mouth and nose for breathing together. This is also the best time to exercise your heart and lungs.
Aerobic exercise capacity
The improvement of aerobic capacity is the most important for cyclists. This is what we usually call riding endurance. It brings many benefits:
(1) Improve the ability of glycogen storage;
(2) Effectively improve the body’s metabolic capacity (increase oxygen intake);
(3) Strengthen the capillary tissue in the muscle;
(4) Increase the oxidase that burns fat;
(5) Increase muscle energy release;
(6). Give priority to using fat to release energy.
Therefore, aerobic training is the central task of primary training, and a lot of time should be used for this endurance training. Long-distance riding is the most basic training arrangement. According to relevant information, a training time must be more than 40 minutes and a heart rate of 120/min to have a significant training effect. We should increase the time by 2-3 times with the same heart rate.
This training is suitable for people of different ages and different training purposes. Young cyclists can improve their performance through long-term endurance training. Middle-aged and elderly cyclists can enhance their cardiorespiratory function, improve the cleanliness and elasticity of blood vessels, and improve their own health. Those who lose weight can eliminate fat to get a healthy and slim body. Training methods can be single-course training, the most ideal is long-distance multi-day riding. It should be noted that the increase in exercise volume should not exceed 15%.
Muscle endurance training
This is a higher level of training content. The muscles fight against fatigue caused by the exhaustion of lactic acid accumulation glycogen (energy). Through muscular endurance training to delay the appearance of this kind of fatigue, that is to say: in our daily training, some athletes ride long distances at higher speeds, while some athletes can only ride shorter ones. The difference between them is the difference in muscle endurance. To win the game, muscle endurance training must be strengthened. The improvement of muscle endurance will also benefit multi-day leisure riding and will ride faster and farther before the muscles are sore.
*Muscle endurance can be trained by three methods:
(1) Speed cycling training for a certain distance, generally, in the range of 60 to 80 kilometers, the heart rate is controlled at 85-90% of the maximum heart rate, the training cycle can be longer, preferably more than 40 lessons;
(2) Interval training is the stage of improving muscle endurance, the heart rate is controlled at 90-95%, the riding distance is 8 to 10 kilometers, the interval time of each group depends on the distance, the riding distance is short and the interval time is short, and vice versa. It can also be used to train on longer gentle slope roads (gradient 2-4%);
(3) Extreme training: Compared with interval training, extreme cycling training requires more pressure on the muscles and heart, and lungs. The distance is generally controlled between 5-8 kilometers, and the heart rate is more than 100%. Each training interval is 10 minutes, each training 2-3 groups.