Pavcast

Arguably the most important factor of structured training is recovery. We might spend thousands on fancy high-tech recovery gear, donate countless hours aiding our body to bounce back post-training, and completely shift our mindset on our day-to-day lives, but how do we really know we are recovered?

Discussed in this podcast episode. Why recovery is important. My top five tips to aid recovery. How to create a recovery based mindset, including my top 5 health living ‘rules’ to avoid. The warning signs of being under-recovered. Objective ways to measure recovery, including common objective recovery measurements, and limitations and challenges. Plus, how to skip the guesswork and remove all bias.

Links to further resources:

- The role of sleep in cycling performance: https://coachpav.com/cycling-training/how-sleep-improves-cycling-performance/

- How plants can improve your cycling performance: https://coachpav.com/cycling-nutrition/how-plants-can-unlock-cycling-performance-gains/

- How stress is destroying your cycling performance: https://coachpav.com/cycling-mentality/how-stress-destroys-cycling-performance/

- How to improve your recovery for cycling training: https://coachpav.com/cycling-training/how-to-optimise-recovery-for-cycling-training/

- How your mentality affects your cycling performance: https://coachpav.com/cycling-mentality/how-your-mentality-affects-your-cycling-performance/

- Link to more info on coaching: https://coachpav.com/coaching/

With road traffic volume increasing faster than expansion of roads, it’s no wonder why we never seem to get any time between an unfortunate story of someone being hit by another road user. Although the chances of being hit by a vehicle is still quite low - three times for me in my cycling career (once on a BikesEtc Mag shoot!) - the chances of you having a serious incident without involving another road user is quite high. Of course, I’m talking about the dreaded “mechanical”.

Covered in this episode:

- How to prepare for mechanical challenges

- How to prepare for logistical challenges

- How to prepare for riding with other road users

- Top ten tips for riding solo

Of course, this podcast episode is going to focus on improving your cycling power, so if you’re not using a power meter, you can still try to follow along by working to heart rate or perceived effort. If you are using one, ensuring you know how to use your power meter will maximise your opportunity for improvements.

Covered in this episode:

- Improving cycling power

- Structured training

- Strength work

- Improving cycling power off-the-bike

- Strength and conditioning

- Nutrition

- Recovery

- Improving your power to weight ratio

- Weight

It sneaks up on you slowly, sometimes it’s hard to notice it’s even there, and every now and again it might burst out of you in an uncharacteristic manner. Stress isn’t just the silent killer of human beings, it’s the silent killer of your cycling performance.

Covered in this episode:

- Stress and cycling performance

- Acute stress

- Chronic stress

- Training stress

- What to do with stress

- Destressing

- Rest and relaxation

- Meditation

- Individualisation

- Top tips for dealing with stress

Around 90% of the cyclists I work with are what I would describe as “time poor”. If you consider your time like you do your finances, disposable time would be what you have left after you’ve done everything you have to do, which might include; sleeping, eating, working, family time, and possibly training.

We all have to eat, but when faced with a choice of taking a little bit of time to prepare healthy, homemade food, or something quicker, and often less healthy, the time poor cyclist might go with the latter. The good news is you shouldn’t have to, and, much like training being synergistic with your life, your nutrition can be too - regardless of how time poor you are.

Covered in this episode:

- Preparation is key

- Meal planning

- Meal prepping

- Healthy back-up plan

- Breakfast

- Lunch

- Dinner

- Snacks

- Top tips for the time poor cyclist’s meal prep

Putting the effort in during training is great, but how do you really know you’re improving? Sure, you can do some simple testing, but what does that really mean to you and is it really relevant to your cycling goals?

Covered in this episode:

- Functional Threshold Power (FTP)

- Brief understanding of FTP

- Is FTP actually reliable?

- Testing based on your goals

- Tests for sprinters

- Tests for hill climbers

- Tests for testers

- Tests for sportive and gran fondo cyclists

- Top testing tips

Having spent my entire life learning to live with the swings and roundabouts of Bipolar Affective Disorder - I prefer this name due to the acronym - and having spent a lifetime coaching people, ten years of that specific to cycling, I feel I can contribute significantly to those who are trying to balance cycling training and mental health challenges.

Firstly, are/have you, or do you know anyone who is/are, suffering with mental health challenges? As we are starting to come to realise the best way to deal with these challenges is to talk about them, I’m willing to bet the answer to that is an easy yes. Even if you’ve not experienced any mental health challenges, the sad likelihood is that you are more likely than not to experience them in your lifetime. If you’re also dedicated to your cycling training, you’ll want to arm yourself with the best advice on this balancing act as possible.

Covered in this episode:

- Top ten tips for generally improving mental health

- The damage cycling training can do to mental health

- Top five tips to protect your mental health while training

- Top ten foods to improve mental health

Firstly, no, I’m not vegan and I have no objections to those who eat meat. Having said that, plant power is real, and it could be the secret to unlocking serious cycling performance gains.

Covered in this episode:

- What is micronutrition?

- The role micronutrition plays in athletic performance

- Why 5-a-day isn’t enough

- Why our fruit and vegetables are no longer nutrient dense

- The science showing loss of nutrients in our fruit and vegetables

- How to ensure you get enough nutrients from plants

- Why superfoods are bull

- Where the term superfoods came from

- The problem with superfoods

- Does fresh mean healthy?

“Ride a bike. Ride a bike. Ride a bike” – Fausto Coppi, [on how to improve your cycling]

While I’m not one to disagree with a legend as big as Fausto Coppi, we have come a long way in our understanding of sports science, since he graced the tarmac of Le Tour. That’s not to say that if you have limited training time you should do anything other than riding your bike, but if you do have a bit more time, maybe there is some cross-training you can be doing to help you improve your cycling performance.

Covered in this episode:

- Why cross-train?

- Bone density

- Muscular growth

- Mental stimulation

- How to time cross-training correctly

- Macro-cycle

- Micro-cycle

- For recovery

In the pursuit of personalisation of cycling training and nutrition, an often overlooked component of the latter is the need for us to take a deeper look at how we each hydrate. It’s a fallacy to believe that we all have the same hydration needs. When looking to become a complete cyclist, hydration is an area where cyclists can often find a big win.

With the help and input from good friend Andy Blow, from Precision Hydration, this blog post sets out how to get started with personalising your hydration strategy.

Covered in this episode:

- The basics of hydration

- Homeostasis

- The trouble with dehydration

- The trouble with overhydration

- What goes out must come back in (at some point)

- Hydrating for recovery

- How to rehydrate properly during your recovery

- When sweat losses are low

- When sweat losses are high

- Your personalised hydration strategy

- Tips for staying hydrated