If you’re in the market looking for a cycling coach to help you make your goals achievable, it’s important you find a good coach who will tick all the boxes for you - as ultimately this is about YOU and your journey to become a better cyclist.

So what qualities should you be looking for in a Coach?

We’ve devised a simple acronym to help you on your path in finding a C.O.A.C.H.

Competent

Let's start with competency.

Ensuring you have a competent coach means finding someone who has the relevant qualifications and experience in the discipline you’re looking for guidance.

If you’re wanting to be a track sprinter, than it’s best to find someone who has direct experience in this discipline so ideally, look for someone who has experience in sprinting -  e.g. a former athlete or coach who has good experience in working with sprinters. 

Good coaches will have the ability to talk you through the objectives of training exercises, development...

When we’re talking about cyclists who are at the top of the game, often  we see them as fast and powerful machines who look like they’ve spent most of their time working on speed and power.

Whilst there is a substantial amount of speed and power work completed during the season, many fail to see the work our great cyclists have done in the gym or on the road during in the early part of the season.

When you look at your overall season, it’s important to look at the layers of training required to perform at your best at the pointy end or competition phase of your season. 

Structuring your training is like building a house, the foundation has to be very strong before you can put the windows, doors and roof on.

Having a solid foundation in track cycling is ensuring that you have two main components:

1. A strong aerobic fitness base
2. A strong strength base 

1. Aerobic Fitness 

Aerobic fitness is the base level energy system which requires oxygen.

So you don’t have a Personal Coach to help you with your cycling goals?

No worries - We're here to help!

Here are 5 tips to help guide you, keep you on track, and map out your cycling training.

1. Planning

Planning is the first and most important part of mapping out your training.

It's a great idea to sit down and work out the following:

What have you achieved to date?

Have you got previous results to build upon?

Or are you new to the sport and needing to complete a few races or preliminary baseline testing to work out where you’re at?

What are your major season goals?

This could be a local race or event, club event, National event or International event.

This will depend on the level that you’re riding at.

It’s important that when mapping out your season goals you ensure that they follow the S.M.A.R.T. principles (Specificity, Measurability, Attainability, Realistic, Time Measurable).

What commitments and external activities such as work and study...

Do you realise the IMPORTANCE of Periodised Programming for your cycling development?

Having a periodised training program that specifically prepares you for your major season goals is CRUCIAL and is something that is the backbone to every World Champion and International Cyclist’s success.

WHAT SHOULD MY PROGRAM LOOK LIKE?

Your program will need to encompass your short, middle and long term goals.

If you’re planning on working on your own periodised plan, make sure you have your goals in front of you so you can plan accordingly.

For more on goal planning, check out our blog on ‘How To Ride Faster’ for our FREE Goal Tracking Worksheet.

PERIODISATION = the method of structuring training programs to produce maximum performances at the right time.

In structuring our training programs for the cyclists we coach, we generally look at the most important events of the year and prioritise them accordingly.

Why?

Because it ensures we...