Training: The Elements of Getting Faster
The Training Elements of Getting Faster are ten training principles, that when actively applied to your training, can help you get faster and make the most of your hard work.
What are the Training Elements of Getting Faster?
The Elements of Getting Faster can be distilled into four main categories — Lifestyle, Nutrition, Training, and Recovery. The Training category includes all key elements that pertain to training and your training plan.
If your training plan checks these boxes and you can incorporate these practices into your training, planning, and analysis, you’ll be well on your way to getting faster. These are the ten elements of training and how they fit into a training regimen that’s geared entirely towards making you faster.
Knowing Your Training Plan
Every cyclist who wants to get faster needs a high-quality structured training plan. A high-quality structured training plan has four main elements: structure, progression, appropriate intensity, and the right volume for you and your schedule. With these elements, your training plan will provide the right amount of sustainable training stimulus to build and sharpen your fitness for the goals that you have.
You can incorporate these four elements into your training plan when you build a training plan with Plan Builder. Plan Builder takes your schedule, your experience with structure, your goals, and your current training load to build a structured training plan that is right for you. Your training plan will have the right amount of volume, progression, and intensity to sustainably keep you getting faster.
Keeping Your Training on Track
Science-based analysis, goal-focused training, and frequent assessments are the elements that help keep your training tailored to you and your fitness. To ensure you’re incorporating these elements you’ll want to assess your fitness frequently with a Ramp Test, build your training plan around performance-based goals, and use a science-based approach to analyzing your results.
By orienting your training plan around a goal, your workouts and structure will always be goal-oriented. To track your progress during your plan, find your failure points during challenging workouts, and identify your areas of strength, you can use science-based training analysis tools. Finally, when you assess your fitness every four to six weeks, your training plan will adjust your workouts accordingly when you get stronger and increase your FTP, or when life gets in the way, and your training is interrupted. When your training is focused on you, your training always remains on track.
Going the Extra Mile
The final Training Elements of Getting Faster are the elements you can incorporate into your training to enhance the effectiveness of your hard work. This includes strength training, optimizing your equipment, and focusing on maintaining a consistent training schedule.
Optimizing your training setup can make getting on the bike smoother and easier while also guaranteeing that you always have the necessary tools to nail your workouts. Focusing on consistency will help you maintain a sustainable training load and prevent you from missing workouts and experiencing setbacks. Adding strength training to the mix can help you become more efficient at transferring power and recruiting muscles when you pedal.
Don’t have the Elements of Getting Faster? Download the complete PDF for all the elements, details, and descriptions so you can be sure to implement them into your training.