Very often the concept of training is associated with words such as sacrifice and effort; two words which can often have a negative connotation and which, if misplaced in reasoning, could become counterproductive boomerangs.
It is clear that, especially in sports such as cycling and mountain biking, physical effort is a basic component for obtaining a result, and it is not for nothing that they are classified as strenuous sports.
However, this does not mean that a training plan should only include exhausting workouts with titanic efforts and an interpretation of the biker as a pack mule forced only to sweat and work hard.
The hours in the saddle are important, without work on the threshold or lactate resistance you won't win the competitions; just as the absence of athleticism work that stimulates speed to its maximum potential will not allow you to excel even in dh competitions. important.
In addition to the effort there is more
But alongside the traditional qualities to train, there are many other skills to take into consideration. Viewpoints that often require more mental than physical efforts, but which are those details that make the difference between success or defeat.
We work on the mind
For some months now, this section has also hosted the advice of Alberto Botta, mental coach who thanks to his informative pills has opened the doors to a way of approaching competitive spirit from a cognitive point of view. A job that advanced athletes have been doing for some time now and which is also establishing itself at intermediate levels and which serves to optimize our awareness and our potential. This is also called training, just as more and more athletes are relying on practices such as yoga to perfect their recovery times and to find maximum concentration before an event. I have long recommended approaching autogenic training as a mental workout to complement physical ones.
We use action cameras well
The details make the differenceHow many times have you heard this statement?
Borrowing the experience gained in other sports fields such as skiing and basketball, I can state that for a modern rider to be able to analyze his descents or his position on the saddle during a repeat at full speed or during a long climb, can be useful for verifying the body behavior; studying, for example, if the legs maintain the same way of pushing all the time, or if at a certain point one begins to 'pull' with the back. All elements that for an expert eye can mean weakness of some muscle groups and allow important corrections for performance.
In the same way, even analyzing one's own descents can show errors in technique or position in the saddle that can find support with some targeted exercises. For example, entering with the shoulder during a curve is often a sign of weakness of the biceps and of the rotator cuff muscles in general, just as a position with little load on the front is often the consequence of incorrect work on the hamstrings and muscles paravertebral, which lead to a sudden fatigue and overload of the pectoral muscles.
Workshop training
Check the position of the brake levers, adjust the handlebar so that it makes our wrists less tired, get to know the different possible adjustments on our bike well; they are all elements that need our attention and can be included in that category of static workouts we are talking about.
All dynamics in which physical effort is essentially absent, but which allow you to acquire other important skills for achieving the main objective, WIN.
For many but not for everyone?
It is clear that not everyone can spend so much time striving for perfection; this is often a prerogative of professionals, but knowing that dwelling on the details can make the difference, it should allow the amateur to better choose the activities to be carried out and the objectives to set himself, who perhaps loses 30′ on Instagram instead of deepening the kinematic mechanism of your new MTB or the functioning of the adjustments of your mono.
