Cycling, whether on a velib or a fancy road bike, seems pretty straightforward, right? Get on bike, pedal and don't fall off.
Let me tell you, this is naive.
Last week, thanks to fab tri team coaching, us beginner cyclists figured out pelotons. Our speed was about 25km/hr-- slow to real triathletes, but pretty fast for me! I optimistically thought that drafting and the group dynamic was the hard part and that I was well on the way to conquering the world of cycling (despite the fact that last week's training session was my first time ever riding a racing bike! Despite living in France for so long, I've retained my American optimism!) Watch out, Tour de France, I thought. Or Tour de Longchamp, at least!
I was, of course, wrong.
We still rocked the peloton, but we also worked on sprints yesterday and suddenly by upping the pace just a couple km to 30km/hr, cycling became very technical requiring lots of gear changes! Yikes, that sport suddenly became a lot more complicated in just 1 week! I think a lot of it is just trial and error, so I'll need to set aside the time to practice and figure it out, either on Longchamp by myself or on the home trainer (I'll have to get one first) but for the moment, have no idea what gears I should be using! I've heard that cycling is the second-most technical of the 3 triathlon sports (swimming is the most technical-- it doesn't matter how fit you are, you need the right technique to do it effectively) and I believed it after yesterday.
After our first sprint, we were all in the wrong gear, judging by the position of our bicyle chains, which raised some very fundamental questions about gears and how exactly to train for the cycling part of a triathlon, anyway.
Our coach was great and very patient and gave us a Bike Gears 101 lesson (it was actually Bike Gears 102 for me, since last week I needed my own little training on how physically to change them and which hand controlled what...) On a bike there are 2 chain rings, one big and closer to the pedals (right hand side of photo) and one little on the back wheel (left hand side of photo) where you can see a ton of different chains, or gears. We should be on the little one, which means changing that one up or down when you need more or less resistance.
The big chain ring is only the gears you use when you're going like 60km/hr, a speed which I will never have to worry about attaining! Some of the experienced 'beginner' cyclists said they were used to riding on the big chain instead of the little one and they'd have to readjust their cadence and change their entire cycling universe completely. Cadence means how many revolutions, or how many times you pedal. I have no cycling habits whatsoever (good or bad!), since I'm so new at it-- my cycling universe consists of 2 training sessions so far and summer velib-riding last year!
What surprised the other cyclists, who know way more about biking than I do, is that for a triathlon, you train for cadence and not speed (what they'd been doing with the big chain ring). Why? Here's the coach's explanation:
The key to successful cycling (and the subsequent run for a triathlon-- in a tri, you always swim, bike, run, in that order) is sustained effort. We have to pick a target to set the pace, not let your heart do it for you. There are two targets to pick, speed or cadence. If you pick speed, you can ride in the big gears, keep your heart rate very low, and rely on leg strength alone. But you run the risk of burning your legs out for the end of the ride. If you pick cadence, you will use lower gears, have a higher heart rate, and distribute your leg strength/endurance over the the route. You will be surprised with this focus, the speed follows, it just doesn't dictate your style.
This used to be a big debate in cycling (big gears versus high cadence), which has been largely put to bed with the advent of power meters - which demonstrate the cadence approach is best.
Interesting to know, some different training theories. How you learn to do anything is really a product of the theories about teaching it at the time you learn. A swim coach once said that she could look at how someone swam and identify the approximate year that person had taken swim lessons. As a language teacher, from the way people of different nationalities speak English, I can infer a lot about how foreign languages are taught in that particular country.
Anyway, cadence-based training makes sense to me, especially since my goal is just to finish a triathlon in one piece and there's still the run to do after the bike segment!
Some other points I discovered yesterday-- I have pedals that require clip-in shoes, which I borrowed from a friend, but wasn't brave enough to try yesterday for the first time, I wanted to practice clipping in and out since I assume I'll fall over the first few times I brake with them! I really should have just tried the bike shoes anyway, my running shoes slipped off the pedals sometimes-- usually in the middle of hunting for the perfect gear!-- and everyone told me to get clippy bike shoes and promised that it would make riding so much easier.
Bike shoes or running shoes aside, the arctic blast weather was still in full force and we couldn't feel our toes after the ride! I was also already pretty tired after my 20 mile run the previous day, and despite a lot of watermelon flavored GU chomps, I was ready to go get my café allongé! Although bike gears are trickier than I thought and I couldn't keep up with the rest of the group and it was freezing cold, it was good to cycle for 2 hours, since I need the practice.
The other cyclists from different tri teams out in the cold with us were surprisingly nice and when I was falling behind my group, one who I didn't even know pulled up next to me, put his arm around my waist and gave me a push that sent me flying back into my group! He actually did that twice-- a little alarming at first, but ultimately very nice. I resolved to do the same someday for a newbie cyclist, if I ever figure out my gears and how to go 30km/hr, that is! (Although I might explain that I was going to give them a push first, avoiding that awkward moment when I wondered if the other cyclist were trying to reach into my pocket and steal my GU chomps!)
With the exception of friendly tri teams who gave me the extra push (literally!), the one advantage of the terrible weather was that Longchamp was much quieter than usual. Like last time, we ended up in a café to relax and thaw out fingers and toes afterwards and chat about gears and cadence before the long cycle ride home (working on neither speed nor cadence!) to well-deserved hot showers and afternoon naps!
Anyway, cadence-based training makes sense to me, especially since my goal is just to finish a triathlon in one piece and there's still the run to do after the bike segment!
Some other points I discovered yesterday-- I have pedals that require clip-in shoes, which I borrowed from a friend, but wasn't brave enough to try yesterday for the first time, I wanted to practice clipping in and out since I assume I'll fall over the first few times I brake with them! I really should have just tried the bike shoes anyway, my running shoes slipped off the pedals sometimes-- usually in the middle of hunting for the perfect gear!-- and everyone told me to get clippy bike shoes and promised that it would make riding so much easier.
Bike shoes or running shoes aside, the arctic blast weather was still in full force and we couldn't feel our toes after the ride! I was also already pretty tired after my 20 mile run the previous day, and despite a lot of watermelon flavored GU chomps, I was ready to go get my café allongé! Although bike gears are trickier than I thought and I couldn't keep up with the rest of the group and it was freezing cold, it was good to cycle for 2 hours, since I need the practice.
The other cyclists from different tri teams out in the cold with us were surprisingly nice and when I was falling behind my group, one who I didn't even know pulled up next to me, put his arm around my waist and gave me a push that sent me flying back into my group! He actually did that twice-- a little alarming at first, but ultimately very nice. I resolved to do the same someday for a newbie cyclist, if I ever figure out my gears and how to go 30km/hr, that is! (Although I might explain that I was going to give them a push first, avoiding that awkward moment when I wondered if the other cyclist were trying to reach into my pocket and steal my GU chomps!)
With the exception of friendly tri teams who gave me the extra push (literally!), the one advantage of the terrible weather was that Longchamp was much quieter than usual. Like last time, we ended up in a café to relax and thaw out fingers and toes afterwards and chat about gears and cadence before the long cycle ride home (working on neither speed nor cadence!) to well-deserved hot showers and afternoon naps!
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