Get Fast!: A Complete Guide to Gaining Speed Wherever You Ride (Bicycling)

Too uneven a cadence wrecks your momentum which results in loss of energy, power, and speed. Handling — Some riders seem to have an innate ability to handle their bike. They are quick, agile and smooth in their movements, know where to be in the turns and are comfortable bombing down hills and mountain roads. While some of this may come from pure athleticism and experience both good and bad on the bike, a lot of this can be learned and practiced by focusing on a few key things. As a former ski racer, one additional technique really connected with me and should with you if you know how to carve rather than skid a ski.

When you enter a corner, you want your inside pedal up and your outside one down. There are many other tricks and techniques to cornering. And getting wider wheels to give you a bigger contact patch helps to. Why does good handling help you go faster? Paceline riding — Riding in a group one cyclist behind another in a paceline can be both exhilarating and scary. Save that last part for a race, not with your riding buddies or they will quickly disown you.

• Buy for others.
• Editorial Reviews.
• .
• HOW TO RIDE FASTER ON YOUR BIKE: 10 BETTER WAYS – TRAINING AND TECHNIQUE!
• What cycling gear to get next and where to get it.
• Worldly Women - The New Leadership Profile: How to Expatriate with Excellence?

Done wrong or with an inexperienced rider in your line, it can be unnerving and potentially unsafe, which in itself can sap a lot of the energy you hope to save to help the group go faster. Good paceline technique requires that riders pedal smoothly, at a consistent cadence, with about a foot or two between you and that gaps or overlaps are prevented.

Account Options

It also helps if you pull or lead for a period of time shorter than you could, that you fall off toward the center not the outside of the road when you are done and the next person in line maintains the pace rather than speeding up while you get back in the paceline. If someone is not planning to take their pull, they should open up a small gap in front of them and motion to you to move into that spot. Communicate to the riders behind you what is going on whether it is that you are slowing or coming to a stop or there is something in the road to avoid.

There are any number of written and unwritten rules about riding a paceline depending on who you are riding with and where you are riding. There are undoubtedly many other cycling techniques to perfect like braking, climbing, and pacing but the ones above will help make you go faster on your bike. They all take practice and often require changing habits you may have developed over years.

At a minimum you should try these techniques to and see if help you go faster.

Get Fast!: A Complete Guide to Gaining Speed Wherever You Ride - Selene Yeager - Google Книги

For a whole season years ago I tried moving my average cadence up from the low 90s to the rpm range to do what was working for Lance and what a college coach told me he had his team doing at the time. I felt forever fit but never comfortable in the big ring or moving easily in a pace line where the others were pedaling at 10 to 15rpm slower. So I bagged it. You also may notice your knees or back or butt hurts. Or, you may plateau. While you likely bought the right size bike and had some help adjusting the seat when first bought it, the rest of the bike may not have been fit to your unique anatomy or adjusted as your flexibility or an injury made your initial fit out of date.

You may be riding inefficiently because of your fit alone, beyond what you are doing right with your training or technique. A good bike fitter will do several assessments before you even get on the bike. They will assess your skeletal structure — whether your feet or knees bow one way or the other, how aligned or curved your spine is, and how balanced your pelvis is.

They will also measure your leg, tibia and femur length and check your flexibility at various points from your neck through to your ankles. Once you are on your bike, or better on a jig design specifically for bike fitting, the fitter will measure angles at your hip, knee and angle and your reach to the bars. All of this costs money, both for the fit assessment and for any components you need to make to make the fit work. After three generations of the Roubaix frame and about 8 years from the first one till now, I finally got a new bike fit winter. Because of the fit, I also went from No more hip pain and more comfort in the saddle.

Longer, more aero reach will make me faster on the road. Probably some of each. I can definitely go longer, always a good thing on the bike and off of it too. Could I have put that money toward a lighter or more aero wheelset? There are many types of fitters who lean on different combinations of experience and technology to fit you. The better ones use the input from the realms of both art and science. The use of motion capture camera technology and better measurement systems have advanced the science significantly in the last few years to really help the experienced fitters do the job more precisely and less iteratively than in the past.

Customers who bought this item also bought

All of this has made it possible for you to get fit with the same technology and skills pro cyclists use. If only all it took was a good fit to ride like Jennifer…. Reducing your weight provides obvious benefit to your riding. The lighter you are, the more you can put your energy into propelling your bike forward rather than towing your keister down the road.

This is especially true going uphill and accelerating. I detailed the cost-benefit of dropping weight from your wheelset, bike and body for an earlier review and came up with the chart below. You can go through it or just acknowledge what you probably already know — losing weight from your body is the most effective and least costly way to go faster uphill. There are myriad diets that come in and out of fashion for athletes to lose fat and add muscle.

My simple mantra is to train regularly, eat better and eat at the right times. Riding faster requires generating more power per kilo and generating more power per kilo requires building more muscle. Eating better and at the right times can help you do that. Eating better is all about the right combination of protein, carbohydrates, fruits and vegetables. Lots of fruits and vegetables. Lay off the ice cream and soda; easy on the brewski. Hydrate so you pee 4 or 5 times a day.

Think about feeding your muscles rather than your appetite. Eating at the right times is equally important. What you do in the 30 minutes following a workout is crucial to muscle growth and future speed. Protein and carbohydrates together will feed and repair the muscle so it grows, you get stronger and you go faster. The optimal amount of protein to consume post exercise is g. Examples of foods containing 20g protein are two large eggs, a tin of tuna, a chicken breast, two sausages or a pint of milk.

This is only the beginning of optimal recovery — the kick-start to the process. From here, it is important to consume another meal or snack every two to three hours containing g of protein to continue the recovery process. For most people this will just be a case of re-joining their usual meal pattern. One final tip to top off the perfect recovery — try having a protein rich snack before bed as this has been found to help you recover as you sleep.

You will wake up ready to hit your training hard again the next day. One of best and cheapest ways to ride faster on your bike is to position yourself right both when you are in a group and when you are riding out front of it or on your own. Specialized Bicycles did a series of YouTube videos last year in their own wind tunnel to determine the time savings of using various riding techniques, equipment alternatives and other ways cyclists can ride faster.

Personally, this seems about 2x more than what I have experienced in my own paceline riding, but the point is well taken. And, the more fit and better your technique, the faster the paceline you can hang with. When you ride on your own without the benefit of a paceline, the position of your body in the wind is crucial to how aerodynamic and fast you ride.

A study led by Professor Nathan Barry and contributed to by four other researchers click the link for the abstract, go to the pdf shown there for the full study published in in the Journal of Sports Engineering and Technology provides a detailed analysis of how much drag you can reduce if you bend your arms and torso in addition to where you put your hands. But, by running wind tunnel tests of 5 different road cycling postures with your hands in the hoods and drops positions, he showed how to increase the drag reduction further.

Look at the photos and table below pulled from the photo and data in his article. Not bad but not enough for me to change anything. Looking more closely at some of the still photos of racers on the pro circuit, I see this position a lot. This is the Posture 5 in the hoods or Posture 3 in the drops. As always, I welcome your comments below. I also invite you to keep up with new posts and stay connected using the e-mail or RSS sign-ups and Facebook, Twitter and Instagram buttons all of which are in the bar on the right at the top of the post.

Drag, although it is the most significant component in the overall resistance you experience when riding on flat terrain, is still only a component, and not all of the resistance. Thanks for that explanation. And special thanks for putting me in the class of reasonably fit amateurs riding at 40 kph. LOL Glad the point made it across nonetheless. Actually, Steve, this is still one of the best concise, understandable, on point article out there. I forward it to newbies several times a year. Hi Steve, many thanks for the very detailed and awesome reviews.

I am a rider from India, where cycling as a sport is still limited. As a result, a bike fit is not possible. I was curious if you can explain how lowering the stem helps in aero advantage vs what people claim to be increased discomfort? However, not sure if that will be a good idea with the RS11 wheels. I have a CAAD10 if that is also important to consider from clearance point of view. Welcome Rahul, Lowering the stem will lower you torso but done alone might mess up other aspects of your fit and make you less comfortable on the bike hips, shoulders, knees. You can lower your torso for a better aero position without changing your fit, obviously by just bending it more.

As to the tires, I write about this at the end of section 7 in the Ride Faster series here. The s II has better rolling resistance than most others and probably by 20 watts or more over the entry level Lugano. It actually measures close to 27mm mounted and inflated on the wheels and your RS11 probably has a 20mm outer width.

You save only a watt or two less rolling resistance going to the 25c from the 23c tire which actually measures about Many thanks for the reply. It really helps me a lot. Actually my bike is new. Done only about kms so far. The initial few kms I had back pains after a few kms.

Surprisingly, my back pain went away once I took the saddle back and raised it slightly at the same time. I now sit more longer on the bike but feel more comfortable. My speeds jumped as well. But if I ride over rough roads which there are many in India my hands start going numb and tingly after about 40kms. So I was wondering what I could do to solve that. Some articles I read say by sitting long and low might help but others mention the opposite.

I am also considering a more cushy bar tape might help. The stock bar tape is a little thin. I am 95kgs and maybe the problem could be a weak core but I will take all the benefit which a better fitting bike can give! What in your opinion can cause this tingling sensation in the hands?

Again, really appreciate you taking out the time for your response! Are you elbows comfortably bent or are they stretched out straight? If so, you could try moving the seat a little forward. But that could mess with your hip angle to the pedals and you might need a longer stem to keep you in the right position between your hips and pedals. Quick question… how much time on a typical ride or gran fondo would you spend in the drops as a result of your bike fit and training? Other hood positions are less aero than being in the drops.

I think the percentage of time in the most aero postion vs. If you are riding solo and trying to go as fast as you can, be there as much as you can. If you are climbing or just out for a jaunt, no benefit for being aero. I see fit as a totally different deal. Get the fit right. Stem height, angle, bar and seat position, etc. In jazz terms, get the right cats in the band fit, bike for the kind of music you want to make race, group ride, etc. I think they have introduced a training component that seems to follow the training bible now. The mental fitness article and the video is pretty awesome i have to say.

Strava has no planning tools like on TrainingPeaks, you are either on a specific CTS plan or not, and its not possible to create your own plan on Strava. There are no analytics to help plan future workouts for tapering before a big event. And Strava is just plain fun if you are in a club and ride with others, especially the FlyBy feature. Thanks — is the STagesLink part of strava or is it to do with the stages powermeter?? I also do a fair bit of running so i guess i need the schedules to tie in to accommodate them both. Now that I have a power meter thanks for your guidance!

With the 4iiii and Edge there is an algorithm to calculate FTP — apparently essential for determining training power levels. After a good warm up, rode steady the entire ride at watts indoor trainer , but only was able to finish without slowing down through maximum effort as it should be? Since FTP is supposed to be approximately. My real question is my LTHR. To get the free app, enter your mobile phone number. Would you like to tell us about a lower price? Every cyclist wants to get faster. Whether they're a weekend warrior, a crit specialist, or a charity cruiser, speed is the X factor that lets a rider ride strong, feel fresh, and thoroughly enjoy each ride.

In it, author Selene Yeager addresses speed from every possible angle, including not only the standard chapters on riding techniques and bike maintenance tricks specific to getting fast but also stand-alone chapters on fitness and weight loss, stretching, nutrition and supplementation, motivation, and mental attitude. Together they present a complete and comprehensive guide to achieving one's top speed. Bolstered by a foundation in science and road-tested by Yeager and the editors of Bicycling magazine, the wisdom presented in Get Fast!

Read more Read less. Enabled Similar books to Get Fast!: Kindle Cloud Reader Read instantly in your browser.

In The Know Cycling

Customers who bought this item also bought. Page 1 of 1 Start over Page 1 of 1. How to Climb Hills Like a Pro: Bicycling Maximum Overload for Cyclists: A Radical Strength-Based Program The Power Meter Handbook: A User's Guide for Cyclists and Triathletes. Riding as a Lifetime Fitness and Social Activity. Yeager blends personal anecdotes with tips from the pros. The book covers technique, from cadence to breathing, as well as the importance of diet and strength training -- and I love the sound advice to eat healthy fats found in avocados for long-lasting fuel and to do jump squats to help build explosive speeds.

I find that the more I read about biking, the more I wanted to ride. So this books offers double the inspiration. She is the author of several books and writes regularly for Runner's World, Prevention, Shape , and Self. She lives in Emmaus, PA. Product details File Size: Rodale Books April 23, Publication Date: April 23, Sold by: Share your thoughts with other customers. Write a customer review. Read reviews that mention easy to read get fast highly recommend good info useful information everything you need better cyclist need to know well written easy to understand good tips great book buy the book recommend this book get faster book has a lot lot of good good information great information book to be very helpful.

Showing of 67 reviews. Top Reviews Most recent Top Reviews. There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later. I bought Get Fast! I did the exercises that were demonstrated in the book and thought they were very effective. I am a triathlete and know that an improvement in form and efficiency and good bike control can make a huge difference in your training and racing and Selena Yeager has put together some valuable information to help you Get Fast!

Ive read a lot of training books in the past 30 years. This one is a simple read and get to the point without all of the detailed science.. Kindle Edition Verified Purchase.

I'm relatively new to cycling, and I picked up this book to see if I could shorten my learning curve. This book is outstanding. From simple tips to get you rolling faster right away, to more in-depth stuff like core fitness programs and nutrition guides, everything you need to be a better cyclist is here.

I don't know how much value there is for more experienced cyclists, but if you're a newbie like me, make this book a priority purchase. Numerous tips and planning trains. Exercises, Diet Plan, Supplementation.