If you are a cyclist, sooner or later, you're going to hit a plateau. This happens when your performance just doesn't improve, no matter how hard you try.
This can occur for a variety of reasons. One of the most common is training without a proper plan. In order to get the most from your workouts, it is important to approach training from a scientific point of view. Knowing what you are trying to accomplish with each day's effort as well as knowing what not to do can greatly improve your performance.
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Hitting a performance plateau can be a very frustrating experience. Follow these four tips to figure out where you've gone wrong.
Keep a Training Journal
A journal provides context for your workouts and helps you understand how your training is progressing. It paints a picture of what you have accomplished over a particular period of time and how you were able to accomplish it. For example, if you set a personal best in a particular event, you can take a look at the weeks leading up to that event to gain perspective on what you did that enabled you to maximize your performance.
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Conversely, by examining your training in the weeks prior to a plateau, you can gain a greater understanding of what's happening, and why you are stuck. To maximize the effectiveness of your journal, keep track of the following information:
- Date and time of day for each workout
- Weather (temperature, humidity and wind)
- Body weight
- Workout length (in time and distance)
- Route
- Intensity level (using heart rate and/or power output)
- Hours of sleep the previous night, and your general feelings about the ride (on a scale of 1 to 5, with 1 being poor and 5 being awesome)