Five ways to go faster – the short game

Over the coming weeks, Verve Cycling CEO, Bryan Taylor, will share five simple concepts that you can slot into your everyday training routine to help you go faster.

This webinar will cover three of them in what Bryan calls the ‘short game’. That is the training you do so that you can accelerate, attack and sustain a three to 10 minute effort. 

Even since our childhood days of first riding a bike, we’ve always wanted to go as fast as we can. It’s a simple cycling joy.

We all love cycling, but we don’t all like training even if we secretly want to go faster.

Here at Verve Cycling, we are in the business of measurement which means that our bias is often towards numbers and measures. However, this does not mean that it is all about the numbers that you can see on your bike computer. I had to be reminded about this by one of my mentors years ago.

He said: “Bryan, it is not all about watts, the aim is to go faster.”

Now I know this man was the coach and team owner of two Tour de France multiple champions and world champions, but even so, his words confronted me.

Eventually, I realised that he was right. Yes, you can ride and just enjoy the scenery, and I love doing that. But if you are training, then in the end the only thing you want to do, is go faster.

So, how can you achieve this? Over the coming weeks, I’d like to share with you five simple concepts that you can slot into your everyday training routine. I think they will pay great dividends for you and make you faster.

This webinar will cover three of them in what I call the ‘short game’. That is the training you do so that you can accelerate, attack and sustain a three to 10 minute effort. The previous webinar in this series looked at the endurance aspect.

You may have heard coaches describe some of these approaches in the past – what I will try and do is reduce some of the important, but technical language and try to speak in simple, clear, understandable terms.

If you want to go faster for very short periods, like an acceleration from a slow speed or standing start, it requires significant immediate effort. Most sub-elite riders do not practice this skill and tell us that they cannot sprint. We contend that is not true – they have just not practiced the correct routines. In the webinar, we will discuss the way to do it – simple but hard.

Infocrank Cycling Power Meter

Image: Michael Blann Photography

But if accelerations are simple but hard, then the attack and sustain is simple but harder still. Simple to understand and so hard to do that most sub-elite riders prefer to not practice it. But a little work here goes a really long way and once you get it under your skin, it is a bit addictive and enjoyable in itself. What I will tell you how to do will centre on 45 seconds to one minute efforts and we will see how that parlays out into performance even up to several minutes.

Those first two exercises involve technique and even more brute strength and powerful will. The next practice requirement is skill based – We will look at fast pedalling, both what it is and what I don’t think it is. We will also touch on super-fast pedalling

Integrate these things into your training programme and you will have plenty of time to enjoy the bike and the scenery even while your speed increases.

You can have your cake and eat it too!

The Five Ways to go Faster – the Short Game webinar will take place on Thursday 6 May 2021 with Verve Cycling CEO, Bryan Taylor. Click here to view the available sessions and register.

Verve Cycling is hosting a number of webinars over the coming weeks – check out the full schedule to find out what’s on and sign-up.

0
    0
    Your Cart
    Your cart is emptyReturn to Shop