Training for Cycling Competitions

Video Transcript

" This is Jim Toledano for Expert Village talking about starting your training and learning to ride a bike well. Okay, you bought this bike. It’s fitted to you properly; it’s got the gear on it that you like. What do you do now? What you don’t do is decide you’re going to do a nice 50 mile ride to start out. You want to start out slowly and get used to it. Bikes are an amazingly efficient machine, but you need to learn how to use it properly. So you find short flat streets, you get on your bike and you start riding. If necessary, you ride up and down the street for a little while to feel comfortable. Then get a little more adventurous and go on longer rides. Most areas have books or magazines with proposed suggested bike trails/ bike routes for beginners and more experienced riders. Climbing hills simply requires you use all those gears you paid for; use them in order and get used to it. Climb hills; if you get tired stop. If you’re on a long ride, stop and rest. The most amazing thing you’ll find about your body is may be exhausted from climbing a hill of making a long ride, stop for a few minutes, have a drink of water, have something to eat and start again. You’ll be amazed of how much strength and energy you have. The most important thing about training is don’t over do it. Don’t ride further and harder than you’re able to do. You’ve got your bike, you learned how to ride it, you’d like to learn to ride with others. You can ride with others just for the fun of seeing what routes they know about or to be competitive and ride faster and harder because you’re with a group that rides faster and harder. You might want to do a long ride, charity bicycle ride such as AIDS life cycle in California. You might simply want to be able to have a group of people to ride with for the social aspect of it. You will find online all kinds of bicycle clubs in your area. You’ll find in every bike store newspapers, magazines, pamphlets for groups of people who like to ride together. So you’re riding in a group. Don’t ride side by side and get out into the street. Don’t enjoy yourself talking with somebody so much that you stop paying attention to the cars and the stuff in the bike routes and any other obstacle and hazards that you have. It’s amazing how many people around the world ride bicycles and how much fun it is to share what you’ve learned about enjoying a bike and leaning from others how much they enjoy it too. "