tinkercyclingclub.org

This week’s arti­cle of the Beginner’s Cor­ner is about com­mon mis­takes that begin­ners can make and how to fix them.  Every­one has to start some­where, and we all make mis­takes along the way. The good news is there are plenty of sources out there who are will­ing to help you out. So here are some com­mon things new rid­ers do that they shouldn’t:

1. Rid­ing by your­self. The best way to get bet­ter is to ride with some­one who is bet­ter, period. Join a club and ask more expe­ri­enced rid­ers for advice. You’ll get all you can take in. See our Links page for a list of clubs in the Okla­homa City area. (Shame­less plug: the Tin­ker Cycling Club is a great place to start).

For trail rid­ers, the same thing is true. Ride with more expe­ri­enced rid­ers. Fol­low their lines. Ask them how they shifted to climb that hill. Peo­ple are always ready to help.

2. Not eat­ing or drink­ing right. Food and flu­ids are absolutely crit­i­cal, both to per­for­mance and to just enjoy­ing your­self on a ride. Go to any book­store or search the web and you will find tons of books and arti­cles about eat­ing and drink­ing right for ath­letic per­for­mance. For begin­ners, the key is to remem­ber to eat a snack about an hour before you ride and to bring plenty of flu­ids with you on the ride (and drink them).

Snacks should be sim­ple carbs like gra­nola bars, fruit or yogurt. Flu­ids should be water or some kind of sports drink. Keep in mind that as the sum­mer wears on, the temps will get very high–and drink­ing plenty of flu­ids is crit­i­cal for avoid­ing overheating.

3. Avoid­ing hills. It’s a sad fact, but learn to love hills. They will wear you down and can make you want to cry, but they will help build you up stronger. The same thing is true of the wind. Hills make your body work harder, build­ing leg strength and con­di­tion­ing the heart.

Pick a hilly route once a week and try to push your­self as you climb, then go easy on the down­hill. Actu­ally, that is a form of what run­ners call “inter­vals” and look where it gets them.

4. Going as hard as you can, every time. Too many begin­ners think you have go hard from the minute you get on the bike until they drop from exhaus­tion. Not true. The body has to recover from hard exer­tion, and the best way to do that is make easy rides along with hard ones. Slow, long rides also help burn calo­ries and improve aer­o­bic capac­ity. Yes, that’s a good thing.

5. Doing noth­ing but rid­ing. Cross train­ing is a won­der­ful way to help train other mus­cles that do not get stressed dur­ing rid­ing. Ever see the car­toon of cyclists as dinosaurs? You know–great big legs and scrawny arms? Doing some other kind of exer­cise helps fix that.

Run­ning is a great other form of exer­cise, and so is swim­ming or weight lift­ing. Weight lift­ing in par­tic­u­lar helps strengthen mus­cles to help turn cranks on long climbs or to wres­tle a bike around tight trails. Any kind of aer­o­bic activ­ity is great dur­ing the off-season, too.

6.  Stick­ing to a rigid ride sched­ule. One of the biggest risks when start­ing out is burnout. Too often new rid­ers try to get on a hard sched­ule, then start to feel oblig­ated to fol­low it. When that hap­pens, rid­ing starts to feel like a chore, and per­for­mance drops off.

Avoid this by just rid­ing how you feel. No one wins the Tour de France or loses 100 pounds overnight, so don’t try it. Ride hard, ride easy. Enjoy the views on the trails. Feel good about talk­ing to friends as you ride. The impor­tant thing is to have fun.

And that, my friends, is really the point. Have fun, and go ride your bike!

Columns: Beginner's Corner, Featured // Tags: ride, tips & tricks, training