The first in a series of posts on cycling training.
Humans are quite adaptable, and we take advantage of that adaptability when we work out. Or, we *try* to take advantage of it, but we often don’t do a very good job of it, because we misunderstand how things work. It’s really quite simple:
Overload + Recovery = Improvement
Overload means applying training stress that exceeds what your body is already accustomed to.
Recovery is the time after the workout when you get better.
Improvement is when you get better.
When you first start riding, this is easy to do; you aren’t used to riding at all, so pretty much anything that you do overloads your system, and you improve. Over time, your body adapts to the way that you are working out, and your improvement plateaus. If you keep training the same way you were training in the past, you won’t see the improvements that you are looking for, since you are no longer generating any training stress.
In future posts I’ll explore ways to get more overload, and how to improve recovery.
So, what do you think ?