Fitness in Body and Mind
Saturday, 25 August 2012
Thursday, 26 July 2012
Bradley Wiggins’ Tour de France Win Was Due To Five Key Success Factors
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Bradley Wiggins’ Tour de France Win Was Due
To Five Key Success Factors
Bradley Wiggins won The 2012 Tour de France
in the manner of a true champion. As well as the acclaim for being the first
Briton to do so, the World Pro Cycling Scene is just starting to realize he won
in a way that has no peers except Armstrong, Coppi and Merckx. For he showed
the time trialling ability of Indurain but with more charisma. He showed the
consistent climbing class of Armstrong but had more to offer his team on the
flat. And he was streets ahead of those skinny hill climbers over the years,
who have just hidden in the peleton and waited until everyone else was having a
bad day in the mountains, to steal several minutes lead. Often the race was
made for them until Armstrong’s team ethic and pacemakers started to nullify
the chances for skinny freaks to catch the race by surprise.
Wiggins won with real class and he did it
for five clear reasons:
Talent – it was seen from an early age that
he had the height, the leg length and the cardio engine to create very high
pedal revolutions in high gears and thus maintain a consistent high speed. Also
the need to win is often in your DNA. Some people are born champions, often
because they are just such bad losers. In Bradley’s case this is partly true,
but he also had something positive to prove from his childhood. Just as with
Lance Armstrong, a loving Mother and distant biological father seems to spark
that extra level of hunger. The earlier victories at Olympic and World levels
proved an exclusive pedigree for cycling speed.
Focus – this year there was just this one
goal, with no distraction. The track racing was dropped. The London Olympics
were merely an interesting opportunist week in the racing calendar. Everything
was focused on Le Tour.
Experience – Bradley admits that last
year’s Tour de France crash and his forced early withdrawal due to a broken
collar bone gave him extra impetus this year. It should be remembered that he
was already ‘mixing-it’ with the elite climbers, as far back as three years’
ago. Holding his own until the very final attacks on the Mont Ventoux with the
esteemed company of Schleck, Contador and The Great Armstrong showed his class.
Plus it gave him real confidence to climb the Grand Cols in his own way – avoiding
the showmanship of Contador’s (allegedly artificially stimulated) uphill
attacks or the short-term bursts of Schleck and this year, Nibali.
Professionalism – this was evident in the
whole Sky set-up. Mental and physical preparation, selection of team members,
the whole season’s perfect racing programme allowing three other stage-race
victories to come Bradley’s way. And of course the single-minded attitude and
planning of the whole team set-up. But it also rested on Bradley himself to
take his self-discipline to a new level. Not easy with new-found wealth and a
young family hardly seen during relentless nights recovering in soul-less
hotels through training camps and long stage races. But his professional
self-discipline held firm.
Belief – a new level of self-belief came
from the realization that he had everything in his physical make-up to realize
the ultimate road cyclists dream. This was brilliantly nurtured by his support
team but also came from a rising stature and respect among the super-elite
cadre of the world’s top riders. Slowing the peleton after Cadel Evans’
misfortune was not just sportsmanship but the action of someone who realized he
was “Le Patron” at last.
There may just be one more year for Bradley
to repeat this dominant victory again. But other teams and other Grand Tour contenders
will find it very hard, in the short term, to establish these five factors for
his success . Check out Power Muscle and Exercise Bike Health
Wednesday, 13 June 2012
Body Building Advice
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Sunday, 6 May 2012
http://youtu.be/a0no8QjW_Ik
Bad Drivers and High Water while Cycle Racing Training For Elite Cycling.
report discourteous motorists on
http://www.elitecyclingfitness.com
Bad Drivers and High Water while Cycle Racing Training For Elite Cycling.
report discourteous motorists on
http://www.elitecyclingfitness.com
Tuesday, 1 May 2012
Increase Sprinting Speed from Cycling Coaching for Elite Cyclists
Increase Sprinting Speed and How To Improve Your Cycling Sprinting Power
Are cycling sprinters born or made? Could Mark Cavendish or Sir Chris
Hoy have achieved so much renowned world championship success if they were not
born with specific physiological benefits? The answer is yes – with specific
training programs and focus, sprinters can be made. But no – to get to the
levels that Cav and Sir Chris attain, then you do need to be blessed with the
physical features that mean you can find that extra sprinting kick, when it
really matters. So how can you make yourself into a good elite cycling
sprinter?
The champion cyclist will have the right bias of ‘fast twitch’ muscles
in his or her legs, to be able to get all their power into a 300m burst. To
accelerate hard, build the power and kick hard when it’s really close on the
finish line, you have to be blessed with this type of muscle composition from
birth. But how far can you get without such a genetic gift? If you want to be
another Cav or Sir Chris, how can you follow a training plan that gets you into
a chance of a winning position in a final sprint? How can you improve your
cycling sprinting regardless of your allotted quantity of fast-twitch muscle
fibres?
The process is really all about simulating the pain of that final
effort, making your legs take the pain off sheer intensive effort. And to be
ready for it even after 3-4 hours of racing. It starts in the gym and concludes
in your mind. But most of the development of your sprint training speed comes
from the road.
1. Gym work needs to
build your strength throughout your body – but it should not be overdone. Twice
per week during the winter, once per week during the spring as you step up your
foundation miles and perhaps a very light session each week, during the summer
racing season. Your winter sessions can use heavier weights for bench presses
and squats – using the apparatus and equipment under careful qualified
direction until you have a safely improving program. But as the season
approaches and then once you start racing, you must just keep the weight low and
rely on longer and more frequent repetitions, combined with lots of stretching.
And each night at home you can try to do the skier’s exercise of sitting
against a wall. Try to increase your count of seconds doing this each time. And
take the last 20 seconds to lift the balls of your feet up and down.
2. Whether you want
elite cycling fitness for road or track, road training is where you make all
the big leaps forward in your sprinting power. You need the foundation of at
least 150km per week of winter training on high cadence. Then you use intervals
to build your strength through High Intensity Interval Training. 30-40 minutes of road intervals on a
quiet circuit, sprinting for trees or accelerating out of corners. Then make
the final 5-600 metres absolutely full power in two spurts of total effort,
probably in the gear that you would sprint in on the flat- 53x13 for an elite
rider.
3. Racing to win road
sprints is all about conserving your energy for the sprints that count. In an
elite road race you may be called on to make 5-6 key efforts to close gaps or
join a break. Then 3-4 efforts as the attacks ensue all around you in the final
kilometers. The more you wait for others to close gaps, then the more points of
energy you have in the tank for the final 500m of two big efforts. One to get
to the front and one to put everything into the last 200m. Only you can judge
just when to wait, if an attack goes. But once you decide to close a gap
unaided, treat that like a sprint. If the riders in the breakaway group are any
good they will be attacking at say 45kph. So it’s in the maths. If you want to
close a 30 second gap you have to sprint at an average of 55kph for at least 2
minutes. This also means surprising the bunch to escape with an intense sprint
attack of about 65 kph for 20 seconds on full power.
4. So think of
racing as a series of sprints. And think of sprinting as your route to sheer
self-belief and the elation of victory. Your mental strength is absolutely
critical. It starts with your foundation training and your commitment to
condition your legs to take sheer pain of intensive effort – until you almost
enjoy it! Then your confidence at the business end of a race to be able to
judge where to position yourself in the front ten riders. Who to follow and who
to get ahead of. The better you get, the more instinctive this becomes – and
the more the other riders will be maneuvering to follow you!
Saturday, 28 April 2012
http://youtu.be/kn9q99JPWcc
Elite Cycling Fitness Sprint Training Program for FAST Twitch Muscles to Increase Sprinting Speed. How to build elite cycling fitness for cycle racing training using top cycling fitness coaching and cycling training tips for personal fitness exercise. How to include sprint interval training into your cycle fitness training and triathlon training plans. Use a balanced cycling training programme to increase sprinting speed from your endurance training programmes.
http://www.elitecyclingfitness.com
Thursday, 29 March 2012
Self Esteem and Mind Fitness Allow You To Trust Your Instincts In Any Business Venture or Start Up
Following your
instincts is essential. It gets better with age. Obviously. Because how many
times have you got out of something after suffering a disappointment or setback
– when your instincts had said to you that the activity in question had its
drawbacks? And, of course, the more entrepreneurial and the lass risk averse
that you are, then the more likely you are to plunge in and dismiss any
niggling doubts.
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| Keep An Active Mind While Cycling Training Coaching |
In his
brilliant book ‘Blink’, the award-winning author Malcolm Gladwell examines and
proves that, on balance, a decision taken in five seconds will get you the same
or better net results, than one taken after agonising days or weeks of
evaluation; or after investment in deep and thorough research and analysis.
Think how your
gut-feel told you in five seconds whether you could or could not hire that
person as an employee, or make that investment, or buy that property. Think how
your gut-feel told you about relationships and important situations. Even which
direction to take when you are lost on a car journey. So follow it and have
utter faith in it.
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| http://www.elitecyclingfitness.com |
For The Master Entrepreneur
1.
I will enjoy my faith in my
instincts to know when a course of action is right
2.
When I have doubts, I will
recognize how tough this is to acknowledge them. But again I will have utter
faith and be ready to walk away fast, because I know that the Universe has lots
of opportunities for me right up ahead.
3.
When others ask my advice I
will give them an honest and instinctive re-action and be totally realistic
about my views on the pros and cons.
4.
I will use my instincts as a competitive strength when it comes to a new innovation or course of action. My
resourcefulness and zeal will enable me to exploit an emergent opportunity with
immediate new strategies and tactics
For the Cautious Optimist
1.
I must follow my instincts
more, whatever the scenario
2.
When an opportunity looks
ideal, I must balance my nagging doubts with a spirit of ‘I will prevail’. I
should create a fallback plan if further analysis proves my instincts wrong,
but I should proceed regardless, albeit cautiously and in small
bite-sized-chunks.
3.
If my instincts tell me
something doesn’t look right then I should have more faith in them. Rather than
agonise over deep time-consuming analysis, I should have the confidence to drop
that option and just move on.
4.
I will build my abilities tofollow my gut feel. I can use idle time (perhaps in traffic or while you are
frustrated in a queue) to think this through. By taking previous examples of
success and failure – in my life or in the lives of others that I respect – and
thinking through my own perspectives it will help me understand. I will reflect
on ‘how I would have felt’ and ‘what would I have done’. Most importantly, how
would I have held the courage to go ahead and commit resources, even against
the supposed ‘better judgment of close advisors or friends?’
When you read
the biographies of successful entrepreneurs or courageous leaders, it is often
one small decision that made all the difference. Look carefully for these and
try to adopt the thought processes and confidence that these winners displayed.
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| http://elitecyclingfitness.com |
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