For those embarking on a training plan for the first time, or perhaps riding without focus and struggling to find fitness, it might be a good idea to go back to basics and get a little understanding of the basic principles behind building fitness. This is where the FITT principle comes in.
The first thing to understand is the effect of training on the body. Let’s start by looking at one single session.
In general terms we train and this ‘stresses’ the body (the muscles, the cardiovascular system etc). For a period after training we are tired, or fatigued. We rest which gives the body chance to recuperate, recover, rebuild itself so it is stronger. The body has adapted and, for a short while at least, it is stronger and can cope with a slightly harder training session. The balance of training and recovery is vital. When to train again and how hard to train are the key. Train too hard with too little rest and you will just get more and more fatigued. It could even lead to overtraining. If you don’t train hard enough or regularly enough, then the body won’t be pushed to adapt and improve (or those temporary improvements will disappear). However, get the balance right and your fitness will improve!
So how do we ensure the right balance to get FITT?
Frequency
How often do you train? A minimum of 3 times a week will bring about significant benefits. Train just once a week and you’re wasting your time! Everything you gain will be lost by the time you ride again. Ideally I’d recommend 5 or 6 times a week for those with the time and training history to support it. Those who are new to training regularly would be best starting with perhaps four days a week (it’s good to stress the body by doing 2 days back to back). In general older athletes tend to need more rest days, so 5 days a week might be ideal. For those in their prime 6 days a week might be best. EVERYONE needs to rest though, even professional athletes, so do include rest days! It’s only when you rest that your body gets stronger.
Intensity
How hard are you training in each session? This can be measured in lots of ways but the three most useful to cyclists are; RPE (rating of perceived exertion) – which is how hard it feels, Heart Rate – which is a way of measuring the stress that the body is under, and Power – which is a measure of the actual output.
RPE is useful and anyone can estimate how hard they are going. With practice and using guides like ‘Borg’s Scale of Perceived Exertion’ it can be a fairly accurate way of estimating the intensity.
Heart Rate is even more useful and a cheap way to measure intensity. It does have limitations though, particularly because it varies for many reasons – the heat, the cold, your level of hydration or dehydration, general stress and many more. It also takes a while to react, so isn’t a particularly good measure for short and/or hard efforts.
Power is the most direct method of measuring intensity as it measures your actual output. It is also rather expensive, so not for everyone.
Whilst Power is definitely recommended for high end racers, Heart Rate and RPE are still really important tools that everyone should use. Even with a power meter they add a lot of useful information. How much stress your body is under (measured by Heart Rate) and how hard it feels are always vitally important.
The good news is that any of these ways of measuring intensity will help you to get fitter. You don’t need a power meter to reach your goals. Even riding on feel, either ‘easy, medium or hard’ can help improve your fitness far more than just riding! Don’t fall into the common trap of always riding hard – everyone benefits from training at different intensities as they train different systems within the body. For example riding ‘easy’ trains the body to burn fat as a fuel more and makes us more efficient, whereas maximum strength gains only come from very high intensities.
If starting to train for the first time spend most of your time at an ‘easy’ intensity and after a while build up to the ’80/20 rule’. 80% of your time spend riding easy, 20% of it harder. Coaches will of course prescribe a much more sophisticated combination of intensities, depending on you and your goals, but this is a good starting point for those new to training.
Time
How long is each training session, and how much time do you spend training in total? Cycling is predominantly an endurance sport, so time is a hugely important! Short, half hour sessions will help, but with a good warm up and cool down a better minimum session length is probably about an hour. Of course when your are in a more advanced stage of training really short intense efforts can have a great effect – but the more intense the sessions the longer a warm up you will need to ensure your body is ready to cope with the intensity and to prevent injury.
To build general fitness, and to get your body to adapt to training either as a beginner, or after a break from training it is best to do longer easier rides first. How long depends on a number of factors, such as your training history (what is your body used to doing) and your goals (are you aiming to ride a couple of hours with friends comfortably, your first Sportive, a 24 hour time trial, a hundred miles a day for a week on a tour of Lands End to John O’ Groats?). Whatever your goal, build up the distance gradually over time. A good rule of thumb is adding about 10% per week. Remember you don’t necessarily need to train as long as your target event either! Another general rule of thumb is to ride up to 80% of your target distance (say if attempting a Sportive) but even that’s not practical for longer events such as a 24 hour TT!
Type
If you want to get better at cycling – ride your bike more! Yes, gym work might make you stronger and cross training (eg running, swimming, circuits) has it’s benefits for your general fitness, but you can’t beat time on the bike if your main goal is cycling related.
What is most important?
First of all, if your goal is a bike ride or race of any kind – ride your bike! The first thing to concentrate on is to train regularly. Otherwise any benefits are lost before the next session. Next build up time on the bike – both the total amount of time spent riding and the length of your longest ride. The biggest single predictor of performance is time spent riding. Ride more, go better! For most people time is also the limiting factor. We are all busy people with jobs, families and busy lives and only have a finite amount of time to spend training. So once you are riding regularly and have built up the time you spend on the bike to the point where you can’t spend more hours in the saddle, that is where intensity becomes more important and can make the difference. Manipulating load and intensity to suit you and your goals is complex issue which I won’t cover this time, but that’s where the knowledge and experience of a professional coach really come in to their own.
If you take one thing from this I can only reiterate the words of the legend Fausto Coppi; “Ride a bike, ride a bike, ride a bike!”
