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Plan for the Best Vacation of Your Life!

Well, you’ve done it. You’ve pinched the pennies and saved the scraps until you have purchased the best vacation of a lifetime – a trip with Destination Cycling. Your bike is ready, you’ve read up on the local dialect, you’ve planned every detail down to the nth degree, but is your body itself prepared? Whether you ride 14 hours a week or 4, it helps to have a plan!

Now remember, this is a cycling VACATION, meaning, you don’t want the pressure of an intense training regimen. However, it always helps to be fit, because the trip itself will be so much more enjoyable. There are Three things we can manipulate when we train.

Use the Acronym “F.I.T” to help you remember this.
As a result of our training, we’re usually trying to optimize 4 things, usually called the “Four S’s”:

Now, balancing Frequency, Intensity, and Time and trying to optimize Speed, Strength, Stamina and Skill, can tend to remind the average rider of a juggler trying to keep seven water balloons aloft with just one hand! But if you focus and plan, improvements in the 4’s will be quantified by steady application of Frequency, Intensity, and Time.

Start with Frequency. How often can you train? If you’re like most of us, the answer probably isn’t what you’d like, but hey, we can’t all be Pro Cyclists who actually get PAID to pedal! So, think about how often you can train, on the bike and off. Try to shoot for a minimum of 4 days a week. That way, your next workout is not too far away, and you also get to program in some recovery time between workouts. Now, more is always better, but it’s also a good idea to make sure you take a day off now & then, just so your body can get a chance to rest and repair itself. Rest days mean just that – REST!

Next, think about your Intensity. Harder is not always better, but if you’re in a crunch, intensity is usually better than duration for improving fitness. That doesn’t mean that you need to go out and ride a high-intensity SPIN class every Tuesday and Thursday, but again, if you have to decide between a low intensity ride for 60 minutes and a ride with bouts of high intensity, then it’s better to err on the side of intensity. One note of caution: you need to BUILD UP towards intensity – it can’t just happen overnight. Intense workouts can be pretty draining, so prepare for them, listen to your body, and back off when appropriate. Nothing could be worse than having the best of intentions, and then blowing up 20 minutes in to a workout because you rode too hard, too early, and weren’t prepared.

Finally, think about Time. The ‘magic number’ in terms of hours for base fitness for endurance athletes is usually pegged at around 6 hours per week. While many can achieve that, some don’t, while others can stretch the time envelope into the 20’s… It’s really just a goal to shoot for, especially if you’re an enthusiast or recreational rider. Also, remember, you really can’t try to hit those six hours in just two days a week, back-to-back, like on weekends. Again, try to space things out a bit, and shoot for the midweek rides, indoors or out, that will help balance out your fitness. Long rides at low-to-moderate intensities will do wonders for your aerobic system and will make you ride more efficiently, so do plan on at least one per week, especially as your vacation gets closer on the calendar.

We’ll talk about the “4 S’s” in an upcoming post. Until then, think about where you have been in your fitness regimen in terms of F.I.T., think about where you are, and think about where you need to go in order to arrive at your destination Fit, Fast, and prepared for the terrain and challenges that lie ahead.
Thanks for reading!

Richard P. Wharton
Owner/Operator
www.onlinebikecoach.com

USA Cycling Elite CoachCoach Richard P. Wharton is the owner & operator of www.onlinebikecoach.com, an online and on-site coaching, training, and testing business based out of Dallas, Texas. He began cycling in the late 1980's, lived in Montana and Idaho in the 1990's, operated a Junior Development Program (Team "Dazed and Confused") until 1997, and returned to Dallas in 1999 to work on the Dallas 2012 Olympic Bid. In 2000, he was the Director of Development at the SuperDrome in Frisco, and in 2002 interned at Tailwind Sports, the company that then owned and operated the US Postal Service Pro Cycling Team. He has been a coach since 1993, and a CompuTrainer owner since 1995. In the 1990's he was an Expert-level mountain biker and is currently a Category 3 road cyclist.

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