The following is an excerpt from an upcoming book on technology, distraction, and why training simply is the most effective way to improve your cycling. To get updates and follow the progress of the book please sign up for our newsletter.
Every coach has biases. Here’s one of mine.
Cyclists who narrow their focus on the essentials of training will be stronger, more competitive, and happier.
Let me explain.
While the world of cycling celebrates training excesses like larger volumes and endlessly complex intervals, the most sustainable path toward cycling progress follows a route of less but better [1].
Forums, blogs, podcasts, and of course, social media. These pieces of training advice are omnipresent in our pocket, often driving us to “include everything” in our training approach. This lack of training discernment leads to distraction, decision fatigue, and an ambient fear that we’re always missing out on something better.
Our obsession with training novelty may hurt our performance, but our most significant loss is the pleasure of riding a bike. Cycling ends up feeling as joyless as the hundreds of hours we invest in scrolling through the lives of people we don’t really care about.
Our most potent antidote to this distracted approach to training is a return to simplicity.
As I’ll layout in the pages ahead, a commitment to training simplicity isn’t easy. In the age of the internet, where distraction serves as a default, “simple” requires discipline, hard work, and a robust system to aid in separating the training essential from the non-essential [1].
Let’s jump in…
Training can be confusing. In our free eBook, we’ll show you four ways to use your data and insights from science to ride better than ever.
References
- McKeown, G., Essentialism: the disciplined pursuit of less. First Edition ed. 2014, New York: Crown Business. 260 pages.