Nov 13, 2022

TRY NOT TO OVERTHINK IT

HERE'S THE DEALIO, we are humans and humans love new stuff. We are always looking far into the horizon...

... because there might be danger out there.

Or food. Or friends. Or, in modern terms, a new and better way to do things.

Consequently, it is extremely easy to overthink our training.

Consider this, from an old book called Bike Racing 101, which a friend showed me today...

In February 1998 American Fred Rodriguez scored a stunning three stage wins and top 10 overall place in the grueling Le Tour de Langkawi, beating out many top European road pros.

This performance got him noticed and picked up by the strongest squad in the world at the time, the Mapei team.

How did he prepare for this astonishing feat?

Freddie had already been riding for many years with his coach, René Wenzel. Wenzel knew Freddie could handle a tough program. He started out with one hour per day of endurance-paced riding in early October and continued to add 20 minutes per day each week until he was doing six hours per day, all at an endurance pace. By the time he left for the Malaysia event, he had only very briefly been above 80 percent of his maximum heart rate on one occasion during team training camp.

At 80 percent of his MHR, Fred was averaging approximately 25 MPH (40 KPH)
on flat sections of his training rides. The rest is history.

To be honest, none of us has 6 hours a day to ride in zone 2. Even if we wanted to our bodies probably couldn't handle it.

There's a lesson in there somewhere...

... use it.

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