3 Crucial Factors Of Improved Cycling Performance Explained By A Professional Cycling Coach

As a professional cycling coach, I want all cyclists to be aware of the fact that their cycling performance depends on 3 crucial factors, namely, training, nutrition and recovery. This article outlines a brief overview of all three.
Training
The most crucial factor of cycling performance is training. If you don’t join a good cycling training program, you can never become a successful cyclist. You can find many useful resources like books and magazines on effective cycling training online as well as offline. Most of these resources can be helpful, depending on your goals and experience. However, the easiest way of effective cycling training is F.I.T.T. model, which stands for frequency, intensity, time, and type. Let’s understand F.I.T.T. model, in detail.
�Frequency - the number of times you cycle each week.
�Intensity - how hard you work during a specific cycling session.
�Time - duration of cycling session. For example, 1 hour, 2 hour etc.
�Type � type of cycling exercise, e.g. strength training, hill training etc.
By and large, there is an inverse relationship between intensity and time. The harder you work in a specific cycling session, the shorter the session and vice versa. The key to a successful cycling training is to consistently balance intensity and time in a way that result in improved cycling performance. If you want to make the most of your cycling training program, then apply each component of F.I.T.T model, according to your goals as a cyclist.
Nutrition
If you really want to improve your cycling performance, make sure you intake all important nutrients. There are three advantages of taking a nutritious diet. First and most important, it will improve your cycling performance by giving you the energy that you require to complete your cycling training programs and events like racing and tours. Second, a nutritious diet facilitates fast recovery. The only difference between feeling great during a cycling program and feeling completely exhausted is a balanced nutritious diet. Third advantage of good nutrition is that it allows you have a fit and healthy life beyond cycling.
Recovery
Recovery is perhaps the most ignored factor of cycling performance. It may also be the most crucial one. As a rule of thumb, you don’t improve as a cyclist because of good cycling training. You improve because of good rest. Obviously, you need to do both, but the physiological adjustment process that improves your cycling performance occurs when you rest, not when you are training hard. This is because your body needs to maintain an internal equilibrium that is technically called homeostasis. For example, when you train hard, you may feel quite exhausted because your body is not accustomed to the physical stress it experienced during the training.
When you take rest during the recovery process, you body undergoes physiological adjustments that make it stronger. Hence, when you train hard the next time, your body feels much relaxed, thanks to the adjustments.
Recovery makes your body prepared for the next hard training session. It is the core of progressive overload and training for improved cycling performance. You practice hard during the training; take proper rest so that your body can become stronger, and then increases your frequency, intensity and time.
As a professional cycling coach, I would advise you to participate in a cycling training program that pushes you to your limits, and then let you take proper rest and recovery in order to improve your cycling performance. Keep in mind, hard training without proper recovery leads to overtraining, which ultimately put an extremely negative impact on your cycling performance.