It’s like Rocky only without the black eye.
by Clint Hosman on January 14th, 2008
Being inspired by Bit T’s posting on hottie shorts and fixie training and thought “maybe we should tell each other what we are up to on the training tip.” With that in mind before I explain anything of my training or what I do while on my rides I should explain that I subscribe to what I like to call the “Rocky IV” method of training. I see myself as Rocky of course because number one I love America, and number two, like Rocky I don’t have a lot of money to throw at things like CTS couches, power tap meters, expensive heart rate monitors, Garmin GPS units and the like. Not that I have anything against these methods per say but on the cheap Rocky was able to overcome the evil Russian Ivan Drago by pulling logs through the snow, hitting frozen meat in the cold lockers, and chopping down trees. (Here is the Montage from the movie for more inspiration.) Without pouring tones of money into it I think some one can train themselves to a good level of conditioning and be competitive without blowing the children’s collage fund.
So with that explanation out of the way here is my first installment on how I train. One thing I think many riders do is over train. As an example I sight a friend that is probably one of the most naturally gifted bike handlers around. When he is on his game he faster then hell, but he always lost motivation and energy by then end of a season. His high end would top out and once that happened and he started falling off pace out the window goes the motivation and after that no more racing. The one thing he never did was recovery rides. Every ride for him was a 100% ride where he never let off the gas. I believe it was Eddie Merckx said that every racer is like a box of matches. Every effort the rider puts in was one match lit that could not be replaced. The winner of the race was the guy with the most matches left at the end. The same I think could be said of a season, you only have so many 100% efforts to use before your body gives it up for a few months.
The key to keeping your body going through a season is rest. Now rest on a bike means you are putting in rides where you are exerting yourself just at a lower level then a hard ride. This is a fine line though because too little effort and you aren’t doing a thing, to much effort and you are never really resting your body. During a given week I ride every other ride recovery and most of the time it’s hard to keep in that zone, epically if you are feeling great.
The aforementioned friend’s big beef with recovery rides was that they tend to be boring. In all fairness this is true so I offer a suggestion to keep your recovery rides more enjoyable. This is somewhat limiting as it does require a population of feral dogs. It just so happens that I have that very thing not far from my house on the Fort McDowell Pima reservation. There are wild dogs as thick as Mexican restaurants in Phoenix out there. How the dogs help my training is that as I am cruising across the reservation these little bastards will hide out in the ditches or around the blind sides of houses. Then just as I am within range they jump out for the attack. Some dogs are in it just for the chase, some on the other hand are clearly out for blood. The blood thirsty ones come on a Patriot Missal path like I am a Scud Missile and is their sworn duty to knock me out off the road. Either way it’s good for me because I never know what they will be so while I am cursing slowly I have to constantly stay on my toes watching for the chasers.
What keeps you going with recovery? Other then nut shaving Sedrik.
January 15th, 2008 at 5:39 am
Clint. Kids who read this stuff dont want to hear about You and Rockys meat Wrestling fetish under the guise of training….Lmao
January 15th, 2008 at 7:40 am
That kind of un-American comment is enough to get you a pounding by home land security. No one disrespects Rocky and his meat pounding.
January 15th, 2008 at 10:15 am
for me, every ride is a recovery ride. it seems there is always something i am recovering from… staying up late finishing the 08 Team Kit, drinking too much at my buddies bday party, having to go over to my friends house and help him move and then somehow we end up at “dance club” with a full bar or like sunday night where again i was out too late but for a good reason: Evomo Team training: shooting at the indoor range in Burbank. 9mm Springfield XD. Fits nice in my jersey pocket and even nicer in the palm of my hand. I would have taken pictures, but ya know - its not cool to reveal the trade secrets of our world.
January 16th, 2008 at 11:40 pm
its all about how much of the bottle you can kill before getting up before sunrise and racing till the day is done, true evomo fashion….
January 18th, 2008 at 10:22 am
i agree with Brett. also i think its key to burn one right before a grande downhill sesh.