Training Philosophy
Coaching from Lionel Space, Phoenix AZ
I've been racing bicycles in Arizona since 2004 with some success in the Masters category (I started racing as a junior in 1970).
Several people ask me how I train and since my methods are not conventional, most don't believe what I tell them.
However, I'll share them here and maybe some of you will find something useful.
My methods have been developed for my preferred choices in racing, short criteriums and track races.
For those that prefer social rides, grand fondos, and other forms of racing like time trials, hill climbing or long road races, some of my methods may not be as beneficial.
For me, racing is about speed and that is my pursuit.
Also, we are all individuals and each of us will respond to different practices with varying results.
There have been those that have told me that conventional training practices have been proven successful and thus it is foolish to stray from those methods.
I would counter that those who have been successful with those practices are the ones who's individual characteristics responded favorably to those methods
and the many unsuccessful participants should probably consider other alternatives to find what might work better for them.
I have always approached the sport with an open mind and have listened to many approaches;
I then test them myself on the bike, refine where possible, and discard those that don't work for me.
My lack of conformity has often isolated me from others, but my pursuit for discovering my best potential overrides my need for social acceptance.
It seems to me that most training methods are based on the premise of "more pain, more gain", which doesn't fly for me.
A lot of methodologies can be quite tortuous.
Those that can endure that suffering may see some success from these efforts.
Instead, I focus on three different areas that employ my own philosophy to achieve improvement: recovery, intensity, and mental control.
I also encourage going by feel, listening to how your body is ready for a task and monitoring progress by perceived effort, rather than metrics such as power, heart rate, and an iron clad schedule.
The first thing I will usually share with someone that has not seen the improvement they had hoped for, is to make sure they get adequate recovery; especially those of increasing age.
Recovery is not the same as the practice of Long Slow Distance, which involves many hours on the road, often used for an endurance base.
Too often, the extra miles are junk miles that will actually put too much demand on the muscles.
Instead, a one hour ride, slow enough that breathing is not labored, but fast enough to feel the legs working, will act like a massage that helps rejuvenate the muscles by flushing out the toxins and bringing helpful elements to the repairing muscles.
This is Base Utiliization at Low Level and older riders need more periods of this practice than younger riders.
These periods are actually where muscles are built, repairing themselves stronger than before intense efforts stressed them.
Many assume that I do lots of intensity to achieve my strength and are surprised to hear that this is not the case.
Long tempo rides, hill repeats, High Intensity Interval Training, time trialing: none of these are practiced by me.
My philosophy is that the body will adapt to the demands we impose upon it.
If one spends lots of time riding hard tempo, such as 26 mph, you will most likely become very strong at accomplishing that, but it will not enhance your ability to sprint at 35+ mph.
My approach is to realize my maximum speed potential and then riding in a group at fast tempo is a smaller fraction of my maximum, which makes it easier to endure the high tempo.
To accomplish this, I do Super High Intensity Training, where I work on the absolute top speed possible over very short distances.
Many who have trained with me in these seemingly limited sessions are surprised at the physical toll they experience the next day.
I often tell riders that the most powerful muscle they have is their brain.
I am not referring to the possibilities of tactics, knowing your competitors, or paying attention to nuances of the course, though these are also important on race day.
Too often the ability to control our bodies via our mind is not adequately addressed.
Our physical selves have evolved with many mental safety features to protect us, which I refer to as governors (one such mechanical governor would be a speed limiter on a scooter).
Much extreme physical exertion can cause what we perceive as pain and we may limit further exertion by paying heed to that response.
Some will try to ignore that pain (the current "shut up legs" slogan) and many of the drugs prior to the blood oxygenating ones were directed at numbing the ability to receive those responses.
I prefer a more Zen approach, where we already know that the pain response will be coming, recognize it, accept it, and then put it off to the side as we focus on our main goal, usually achieving more speed.
To accomplish this, we must practice extreme intensity while mentally prepared.
To achieve the intensity, one must be physically recovered, which is why intervals do not allow this development, as each subsequent intensity effort comes from a semi-exhausted state that makes it nearly impossible to push up to and beyond our limits.
I thus do a very limited number of sprints where I can ask and expect 100% intensity in each effort.
I call this Cerebral Retraining via Active Participation.
Although it may be theoretically possible to expand your limits without practice, one really needs the bio-feedback of actively pushing the governors to a higher level.
My thinking is that this is more continuously achievable over the long term than resorting to drugs and allows pushing one's limits higher than just turning off or masking the responses.
So for those of you still searching to find the optimized best version of your capabilities, you may want explore my methods of
B.U.L.L., S.H.I.T., and C.R.A.P.
and other non-conventional thinking.
Racing page Bike page