Category: Bike

Can I help you with Climbing on the Bike?

by fullcircle, posted in Bike, Blogs

Can I help you with Climbing on the Bike?

Climbing hills on the bike is definitely a skill that many cyclists don’t have if they live in a flat area and only ride flat rides. Here are my top tips on how to climb better with more efficiency and use different methods of climbing to get stronger. Safety is always first!

Mental Attitude: Your mental attitude toward the climb can affect everything. The best thing is not be in a hurry to get to the top unless you are in epic fitness and have been doing hill climbs for 4-6 weeks at all out intensity. I always say, let the hill or climb come to you. Tackle it one pedal stroke at a time, stay relaxed, and use even intensity/power and breathing. If you have a full day of climbing ahead of you, you need to pace yourself and give your legs a chance to survive the day, get stronger and not have to get off and walk!

Seated vs. Standing Climbs – you want to stay seated as much as possible because your heart rate stays in control and you can keep your momentum going. There are times however when you just have to stand up to get your cadence or RPMS going a little faster, or your butt hurts, or you are almost to the top and just need to eek it out. When you stand up, stay relaxed and use your upper body and the bike to help you rock back and forth and apply pressure with your whole body on the down stroke and then again on the next pedal stroke. Doing standing repeats is a great way to just get stronger climbing on the bike as well.

Too Steep– when it’s just too steep there is a last resort to getting off and walking up the hill. Try slaloming up. What that means is don’t take a straight path up. Ride on a diagonal to the incline for 5-6 feet and then switch back in the other direction to help reduce the steepness and allow you to get your pedals turning over. This works like a charm on the biggest climb we have in Florida, Sugar Loaf Mountain.

Gearing – It can be very helpful to have a bigger cassette or set of chain rings on the back wheel if you are going to be climbing a lot (a 12/28). Also knowing when to shift is important. If you do not have a ton of fitness on climbs and want to survive a long weekend of training, I suggest riding mostly in the small ring up front and keeping your cadence 90 or above, even on the climbs if you can. Climbing in the big ring up front definitely fatigues the legs faster but you definitely want to use the big ring on your descents to power over the top and take advantage of your downhill and recovery.

Downhill – riding down- hill is fun and can provide a much needed break from the uphill climbing. Please ride downhill with caution as your bike can get a little wobbly with speed. Hold you line, communicate with other cyclists you are passing. If you want to descend fast, go in the big ring pedal hard over the top and coast with feet parallel, and tuck at the waist and squeeze the top tube with your knees. IF you are being more cautious, stay upright in the saddle to catch more wind, keep one foot down with weight on it as if standing on it, keep your butt in the saddle and feather the brakes until you get to the bottom. If you get good at descending you can take advantage of getting momentum to climb the entire next hill

without much effort. AS you get toward the bottom of the hill, grab harder gears and start pedaling. As is starts to get harder, drop 1 gear at a time and keep pedaling with a high cadence and see how far your momentum can carry you.

Position in the saddle – Be sure when you are climbing to push back in the saddle and keep your heels down. This is so you can access all the muscled in your legs.

Drafting – getting close behind another rider who is of similar ability to you up a climb can actually help you pace yourself and stay consistent in your pedal stroke all the way up. But, if they are going to fast and you can’t keep up you can blow up. SO decide early if you are sticking with the pull up the hill or ask the rider in front to slow down just a bit to keep you together. Definitely worth the draft if you can keep it.

Eating and Drinking – plan these for the flats or the gentle downhills or breaks in the ride. Being able to ride with 1 hand to drink is very important so you don’t get dehydrated during the ride.

Regrouping after a climb– it’s always polite to wait for the cyclists that got dropped on the climb and pedaling slowly at the end of a series of hills can allow the group to get back together and finish strong together. Nothing worse than seeing the group you are riding with just 200 yards ahead and not being able to bridge the gap. Always look back for dropped athletes and get the group back together.

Curious about Full Circle’s Triathlon Transformation program?
You too can become the triathlete you always dreamed of! Use this link to schedule your FREE Triathlon Breakthrough Session Now! WWW.SCHEDULEYOU.IN/5ZISVAU

Erinne Guthrie is a USA Triathlon Level II Certified Coach since 1999 and Chief Motivating Officer at Full Circle Coaching, LLC since 2010. Creator of Triathlon Transformation. She has been training, racing and coaching triathletes since 1997. She is also a CHEK Holistic Lifestyle Coach Level 3, USMS Master’s Swim Coach, Motivational Speaker, Metabolic Efficiency Specialist, Mom, Mermaid and much much more.

Aquabike – What is it and Why you should try it

by fullcircle, posted in Bike, Blogs, Race Specific, Swim

What’s up Triathletes?
Multirace is now offering an AQUABIKE at many of their races in 2016. This is an added bonus for those athletes who are unable to run. An Aquabike is the swim/bike portion of the triathlon. So, you can choose to do the sprint, international or Half Ironman distance race minus the run. This can be a great way to stay involved in the sport of triathlon even if you have an injury and are unable to run, or simply just don’t like to run. I will recommend an Aquabike to athletes who want to learn how to push hard in the swim and bike and not have to worry about suffering on the run because your race is over after the bike. This is a great way to stay competitive and learn to pace yourself at a higher intensities just simply because you don’t have to worry about running off the bike. When triathlete’s have an injury that doesn’t allow them to run, racing an Aquabike can keep your swim and bike competitive and ready for when your injury heals and you can race a complete triathlon again.

I spent a whole year unable to run 10 years ago and I was able to stay in shape and still keep racing by competing in Aquabikes. Not many races offer them in Florida so this is a great added feature to racing with Multirace this year. If you are competitive, there is good news too! MiamiMan is the Long Course Aquabike Qualifier for World Championships this year. So if you do well you can qualify for World Championships in the Aquabike and travel to compete on an international level to represent the United States!

If this is something you are interested in sign up today.
Any questions please reach out to me for professional triathlon coaching.

 

Erinne Guthrie is a USAT Level 2 Coach since 1999 and Owner of Full Circle Coaching. Our triathlon programs offer the most effective way for triathletes to break through the obstacles holding them back from their ultimate triathlon performance. Erinne has over 20 years of experience motivating triathletes across hundreds of finish lines worldwide using techniques that focus on ways to increase their individual strength, speed and conditioning using holistic methods, expert coaching and accountability to out perform the competition. Email Info@fullcirclecoaching.co.

Are you SHIFTING me?

by fullcircle, posted in Bike, Blogs

By Coach Erinne Guthrie

I meet with a lot of cyclists on a weekly basis, some during one on one sessions and some during our weekly group rides, and I am always surprised by how little new and even experienced cyclists shift their gears. The gears on the bike are meant to be used and shifted quite often during your rides. They are what allow you to keep pedaling with a smooth consistent pedal stroke whether you are drafting in a group, riding alone or climbing the bridges. By shifting your gears you can keep a given cadence or rpm (revolution per minute) so you can be more efficient (90 rpm) on a long ride or create resistance with a lower RPM (50-70) for a given interval to build leg strength while on the bike.  On your next ride I highly recommend playing around with shifting the gears on your bike.  Which gears help you get faster? Slower? More efficient? Tired?  etc. there is a time to use all the gears on your bike, start shifting today!

Rock Star Training Tips: Are you in the Zone?

by fullcircle, posted in Bike, Blogs, Run, Swim, Testing


Are you using Training Zones to guide your training and racing?
If not, you are missing out on vital information to help you achieve your triathlon goals much more quickly.  Most triathletes spend 6-15 hours per week training.  You might as well have some focus and purpose for each and every workout so you can spend less time training, get better results and have a life outside of triathlon as well!  After a 4 to 6 week acclimitization period where you are getting the body used to training 4 to 6 times per week and working on skills in each sport, it is vital to perform some field and or lab tests to discover your training pace, heart rate and power zones.  Without these numbers you are guessing at where you should be spending time getting faster and most likely training in the “Black Hole” where many triathletes spend WAY to much of their time.

The black hole of training is the pace or speed where it feels hard but there is no real purpose to it.  By training in this zone you can only achieve a certain level of fitness.  To be able to get faster and stronger you need to spend time in all training zones in a periodized method to be able to peak for a specific race.  There are a myriad of different methods but picking one and sticking to it is the key.  Then if the results are achieved we know that it worked. If not we go back and look what was missing or needed and adjust and tweak and try again.  Every single athlete is different and it can take a little time to figure out the training zones that need the most work, but it is well worth it.

How we do it at FULL CIRCLE COACHING:

Swim: Pace tests for different distances (long course & short course), then train the paces specific to race distance with form work and speed work at specific times in the training cycle.
Bike: Lactate threshold field tests and or blood lactate tests, then train the most inefficient zones and zones specific to race distance.
Run: 5k and 10k races for field tests and or VO2 max or Blood Lactate testing, then train the zones specific to race distance.

After getting the results of the tests, we create the zones for training and then the periodized training plan to train certain zones for training blocks or set periods of weeks.  This is where it becomes an art and the better the communication between coach and athlete the better the coach can adjust the workouts and achieve the desired outcome.  This is what the upload function on Training Peaks and the Post Comments box in your workouts is for.  After you perform the work, you upload the results so your coach can analyze and see if you were successful. Then build upon success and keep moving forward.

Next Step:

We retest every 6 to 8 weeks, we tweak and adjust depending on the distance of the “A” race.  One of our motto’s is “Strong Before Long” and “Long is Wrong” even for my Ironman athletes! We prescribe minimalist training and specificity which will get you where you want to be much faster with less overuse injury and more power and strength!

Let us guide and coach you to success… Contact me today by email: erinne@fullcirclecoaching.co to get started on setting up your zones for training.