Ride harder!

“Coach, can you give me harder workouts?” 

Lately more and more people have been asking me why their garmin devices keep telling them to train harder, more intensity! more effort! 

All coaches have a different philosophy. There are many ways to get fitter, faster, stronger. There is nothing wrong with training hard, but what is the point if you burn out and stop training? All of your hard work is lost. 

High intensity training or interval training has its benefits, but I see too often that it is given as a replacement for base training, like a quick fix to solve your problems. Many people show off their high power workouts, but often skip their workouts and when it comes time to race, they are burnt out or get dropped before the critical moment. 

Why are you training? For most of my riders it is to have fun and lead a healthy lifestyle, they will never be pro. It’s important that they train in a way that they can maintain for the long term. It’s not about a week or two of full gas. Ask yourself how long you can maintain your current training for. Can you maintain your workouts at this intensity and volume for the rest of your life? If you can’t then it’s not a lifestyle. 

Of course, your training will vary depending on your short term and long term goals. You will have some harder days. But what is your goal? I train people differently according to their goals, nobody is the same and something that work for you may not work for others. But in general the pattern is similar. Don’t worry about the people around you. Do your work to the best of your ability. Do it consistently and do it with discipline. 

Remember that riding hard is easy. Riding with discipline and consistency, that’s what makes the real difference.