Go Big in 2022 with Your Mindset and Training Habits

This tip is for all the athletes who are making new year's resolutions about their training for 2022.

Here are 8 training habits to develop a next level mindset and achieve big results from a lot of improvement! 

 #1 Consistency: Make getting on the bike a daily priority following your training plan: 1 hour a day Tuesday/Wednesday/Thursday, indoors or out, except for your twice weekly rest days. 

We've since adopted the phrase "FtFP" which is like Velomanti's Rule #5, HTFU. FtFP means Follow the F&*#'ing Plan. 100% of our athletes report back that having a plan to follow helps them get on the bike and accomplish their workout each day. Having a coach to hold you accountable to that plan and consequently those goals is also next level.

#2 Zwift: train indoors to follow the plan.

Don't like indoor training?  Try Zwift: its fun and you'll no longer use weather and daylight as an excuse. Zwift enables you to #FtFP when the weather, daylight and time conspires against you.  You may synch your training plan from TrainingPeaks to Zwift and here are the instructions.

#3 Group Rides:  Join a group ride! Outdoors preferably. Join even if its hard, because by trying to hang, you will improve - that's the training.

Improving is fun and riding, training with others is too. During these group rides, ride hard and hold the wheel in front of you to not get dropped. That is the training and in many cases its better than intervals.  Many group rides are a regular thing, like Saturdays so keep going back week after week. Make friends and try to hang a little bit longer each week.  By April or May you'll be able to hang with the group for the whole ride!

#4 CTL: Pay attention to your training load - your CTL.

This is a fancy pocket protecter term you may have heard the Tour de France Pros speak about. 

Our podcast on using the performance manager chart to manage your training load - is truly a next level approach to your training.

#5 Winning in the Grocery Store/ Kitchen: Eat better to ride faster

You are a Ferrari 🏎  and therefore want to put high octane quality fuel in your engine!

Just about all of us could benefit from eating more fruits and vegetable and that's partly what winning in the kitchen is about. Its also about cooking your own meals from a grocery list you shop for and being smart about what you do and do not put in your mouth.  We have several nutrition tips about losing weight, snacks, pre, during and post ride nutrition + several recipes for you to try!

#6 Yoga: "motion is the lotion"

As a master athlete, yoga is the strength and conditioning training you want to do outside of the weight room, year round.  Yoga is like moving meditating (just like riding) and the benefits spilled over to my mental toughness during the races.

#7 Lift Weights to Increase Power Output

If you lift right,  its a game changer, but wrong and its a waste of time.   The speed at which you lift and the on the bike workouts makes a weight lifting plan work to increase your power output. 

#8 Sleep: Best recovery tool in the business. Everything other recovery technique and gadget is secondary.

Try to get at least 8 hours of sleep each night and enlist in the help of a sleep tracker to measure how much sleep you are getting. Whoop, Oura, even your Apple Watch track sleep well. 

Lastly, follow a training plan or hire a coach to develop a custom training plan. Athletes who follow a plan improve faster and more than athletes that do not. 

Copyright © 2022 FasCat Coaching - all rights reserved.

To talk with a FasCat Coach about your training, please fill out a New Athlete Questionnaire to set up a complimentary coaching consultation.

About Frank Overton

Frank founded FasCat Coaching in 2002 and has been a full time cycling coach since 2004. His educational background includes a Masters degree in Physiology from North Carolina State University, pre-med from Hampden-Sydney College. Frank raced at a professional level on the road and mountain bike and currently competes as a "masters" level gravel and cyclocrosser. Professionally Frank comes from medical school spinal cord research and molecular biotechnology. However, to this day it is a dream come true for Frank to be able to help cyclists as a coach.

Hire Coach Frank!