 Alice, training tips is a beginner's cycle. Interrupting true detective again. The show that I'm watching on the bar. Face training, something that I didn't really know that much about. Okay. So I would just go out and just do whatever. Just thinking that pedaling like crazy as fast as I could get there. I was coasting down hills, like not pedaling at all. And then when I started working with a coach, I learned about kind of staying within a specific zone, zone two, and training on that consistently. So I suppose it helped to build my endurance and I could ride for longer without feeling as fatigued. And also when I got off the bike, I didn't feel as fatigued either. Welcome back to the Friday vlog series. Where today? I wanted to do a sequel of a very popular video I published at the back end of last year. 10 tips I wish I knew as a beginner cyclist, but I wanted to have more of a narrow theme focusing on training tips. Reason being, I'm passionate about cycling training. I've been a coach now for over three years and I'm gonna share with you the mistakes I made as a beginner cyclist way back in 2009. And my wife was a beginner cyclist in 2019. She's gonna share some of her mistakes to make up the top 10. So let's get into it. Hey, a quick one before we dive deeper into this video today, we're gonna be talking about training zones a little bit in this video. So for you below is a free downloadable Excel spreadsheet that will help you work out your power or heart rate training zones. And next to it is a free ebook download for those that may wanna go a little bit deeper after this video today. So let's get into it. Tip two, don't ride hard every single ride. And certainly don't ride hard every single day. This is kind of carrying over from tip number one, building base fitness which I completely neglected when I first got into road cycling. Why? It's because I come from an Aussie rules and gym background. So every session used to be hard in my past. So taking that go hard or go home mentality into cycling meant that I got burned out pretty quickly and I neglected. One of the most important fitness adaptations you need with cycling aerobic fitness adaptations. So here's what you need to do. Every single week have easier sessions either focused on zone two or even zone one. Let's just say you ride five times per week. I'd target two to three of those rides at an easier aerobic level and two possibly three rides at a higher intensity. And then for extra bonus points every third or fourth week have an easier week where you might only do one high intensity session that entire week. You might even use that intense session during an easier week to go hit up your favorite local Strava segment or com or maybe you go to your local Bunch Ride and see how many turns you can roll on fresh legs. Number three, don't take your cycling advice from this guy. Hey, you going over there, bike riding, don't ya? Hey, guess so. Well, come on over here, let's have a little chat, eh? Oh, look, it's okay, I'm meeting a mate here. No worries there mate, I'll come over, I'll come over there to you. They know some hills, don't ya? Bit of hill repeats. Yeah, you know I'll be having after these hill repeats, don't ya? Yeah, I'm meeting a mate here, we're just doing some hill repeats. So you know how to do hill repeats, don't ya? Got these hills? Every single repeat, full gas. Bang, bang, bang, bang, bang. Either go hard or go home. So if you're yet to meet a guy or girl like this on your cycling journey, no doubt you will. And he'll have plenty of compelling stories to share that will make you think he's legit. You know where I live my cycling from? Cadell Bloody Evans, 1990s, Great Ocean Road, me and Cadell. We're just smashing it along the Great Ocean Road, we were dropping people left, right and center. It was like a cycling oozy with a few grenades tucked in there. But if he's telling you to smack it as hard as you can, go hard or go home, there's no such thing as an easy ride, then politely thank him for his time and don't listen to anything he says. Yes, power is what? Is that Clark, am I Clark? Investing in a power meter? Okay. How's it beginning on? Well, it made it so much easier for me. I know that probably a lot of guys would wanna get on the road with like the coolest looking rims, is it called rims in cycling? Yeah, yeah. But I think if you're gonna invest in a power meter, which obviously you can't really see. I was training to a number, I was just like, I'm gonna get this amount of watts and I'm gonna stay there, regardless of where I am or what I'm doing. I'd have to, I felt like I was continued, like I felt like it was more of an effort to meet a particular heart rate at any given time, but looking at the power meter, so I look at the power meter, was I just looking at it on my little thing, was so much easier. Tip number five, set clear expectations with your riding partner, either the day before the ride or during the ride. So you're all singing off the same hymn sheet. When I first got into road cycling, I remember every Monday evening I went down Melbourne's famous beach road for an easy spin after the weekend's shenanigans. To clear the legs before what was the Tuesday fast bunch ride we always did in the morning. However, what happened was we'd start riding and it would get competitive and we'd start half-wheeling each other. So this would be your half-wheeling when someone rides about there and then the next person tries to catch up and then he might go out again, getting heated and then this person catches up and then it's a bit of this and it's a bit of this. And guess what? Our easy Monday cruise ended up turning into a threshold session, which is very tough and very fatiguing. And as a result, we went into Tuesday fatigue and we just kept doing this every single time we rode together for an easy spin. And as a result, we ended up in a fatigue state and we ended up on a performance plateau and in fact, our performance started to decline. So it's very easy. Just tell your mates to pull their heads in, set expectations with them, such as just confirming, today we're going on an easy ride. It takes the stress out of riding and it means you can get in those very important zone to and also recovery rides. Number six, appreciate the need to work at different cadence levels. You see, when I was first to begin a cyclist, I'd heard about riding at different cadence levels, particularly lower cadence levels, but I didn't really understand why. So what I did, I just wrote at my organic cadence level, which was around 90, 95, maybe 100. And as a result of doing that, I worked more my cardio vascular system and missed out on building muscular strength on the bike. So what you need to recognize is by working more at a lower cadence, 70, maybe 60, maybe even a bit lower, you're gonna be tapping more into the muscular system. And if you work at a higher cadence level, you're gonna be working or leaning more into the cardio system. So next time you're out on a bike ride by yourself, try this as a little test. For a couple of minutes, ride at a solid tempo, maybe 80 to 85% of your max heart rate. One effort, do at 90 to 100 RPMs or if you don't have cadence sensor, just try riding at a higher revolutions per minute. Then take a couple of minutes in recovery and then do another effort, maybe it's 60 to 70 RPMs and see how you feel. You should note more heavy breathing with the higher RPM effort and more muscular fatigue with the lower RPM effort, which essentially means by riding at a lower cadence, you're tapping more into the muscular system and by riding at a higher cadence, you're tapping more into the cardio system. And by understanding this, you can take this newfound knowledge into your overall training regime. Number seven, understand there is a right to progress. I'll never forget when I was a beginner cyclist, my first ever big ride was 130 kilometers in length, or that's roughly 80 miles. And before that ride, the longest I had ever ridden was 70 kilometers. So on that ride, I bonked severely, just got home and I was fatigued for days, maybe even a week. So always keep in the back of your mind progressive overload. We want to be gradual in our progression, in our training. For example, I should have gone from 70 kilometers to 80 to 90, then maybe 100 to 110-ish, and then tried 130, knowing that each 20 kilometer increment is roughly another 45 minutes in the saddle. And that's a long time when you've already been in the saddle for hours beforehand. Now this principle applies to intense riding as well, particularly high intensity interval training, which we'll discuss in point number nine. But what you need to understand is your body will adapt to the physical stress and you want to layer on that stress gradually to get faster and stronger on your bike quicker. Number eight, like the footy players, take an off season. I remember when I first got into road cycling, I was literally throbbing from the mouth. I could not get enough. Day after day, week after week, month after month, I just kept going. And as a result of just going relentlessly hard, my cycling form went like this, and it actually took a boy's trip in 2010 that stopped me from riding day after day. And when I came back from that 10 day vacation, yes, I'd lost a lot of cycling fitness, but after five, six, seven weeks back into it, I was all of a sudden feeling back to my best. In fact, I felt like I'd found an extra gear and it was that lesson that made me realize or respect that the human body is not designed to be on all the time. Overtraining syndrome is more common than you think, and this muscle right here needs a rest from time to time. So think about at least once a year, maybe twice. Take a month or two, either off the bike completely, or ride at a low intensity for that same period of time. And what you will find, once you get back into your general routine, one, two months in, you'll find another gear. You'll take your cycling performance to the next level. Number nine, try some high intensity interval training. When I first was a beginner cyclist, I was literally all over the place with my riding. I'd just go out and do whatever, whether it be bunch riding, side by side with a mate, unstructured all over the place. Yes, I would be hitting my upper end zones, but it was all over the place. Never was I targeting a specific area and never was I teaching my muscles how to best deal with the rise and fall of the lactate system. So try some high intensity interval training. I reckon the best place to start is a hill like this, one to two minutes in length. Perhaps start at a lower upper end zone, maybe zone four, your threshold zone, ride up the hill, maybe at a lower cadence too. Possibly start at 65 to 70 cadence, working more of the muscular system and work backwards from there. Once you've finished the first effort, ride back down the hill, spin the legs a little bit, clear the byproducts left from the rise of the lactate system, and then go again. Possibly starting with four to five repeats and work your way upwards from there. You'll essentially be targeting a different type of physiological adaptation repeatedly, and you'll also be teaching your muscles how to best deal with the rise and fall of the lactate system. If you're after more info on hill repeat training, I've got a video for you somewhere up there. Number 10, apply constant pressure to the cranks, to the pedals, whatever you wanna call it. When I first got into road cycling, I was very sporadic all over the place, often dictated by the terrain. So pedal hard up the hill, coast down the other side. Or if it was a headwind, I drive it into a headwind, tailwind, take it easy. And as a result of this, there was never a concentrated effort on working my different zones or different physiological systems. And also I was riding, I feel, unsafely because I'd be in a bunch, maybe roll a turn. And the pressure I was applying on the cranks was unpredictable. So we've made t-shirts about this one. Apply constant pressure to the pedals where possible for most rides. Not all, you still wanna go out and do some randomness every now and then, but for most rides. Whether you're riding at a lower level, aerobic pace, or completing intervals, focus on no free pedaling and a consistent pressure. You'll discover that new fitness adaptations occur purely from concentrating on constant pressure on the cranks. Pretty easy and you'll ride more like the pros do, because this is the way that they ride and you'll be more predictable. You'll be a more predictable wheel to follow on the road, which is also a good thing. And another t-shirt I got made up, both made by Gaston the Painter in Melbourne. Thanks for putting them together. Greatly appreciate it. So if you've gotten value from this video today, please don't forget to give it a like and I'll catch you in the next video. It was like I saw something like this with a few grenades stuck in there. People were getting dropped, left ones in and we were just going.