The best advice if you’re starting out in ultra-endurance cycling

If you’re starting out in ultra-endurance cycling, there’s one thing you need to understand right now.

The secret to staying in shape or staying close to being ‘performance ready’ is consistency.

This ultra-endurance cycling coach is nearly 66. I’ve raced 56 consecutive seasons, from mainstream to ultra-endurance, and I train hard, I train smart but I always train.

Even a poorly designed training program will produce results if followed consistently.

What won’t work is the ‘stop-start’ method. Perhaps you have a big ultra-endurance goal and you follow a dedicated program getting into the best shape of your life. You complete the goal and then you stop completely.

When you stop completely, after a race, the biggest obstacle you face is overcoming inertia.

The road back to ultra-fitness can be a tough and bumpy one. You start, you stop and it feels like a rollercoaster. It can be terribly demotivating.

It’s true to say that in those weeks, or even months, post race I’d sacrifice training volume for consistent training.

Consistency trumps everything.

The reality is, there’s no off-season.

There’s a slower season if the mind and body need to rest or refocus. Slower doesn’t mean stop.

Who was it who said, “dripping water hollows out stone, not through force but through persistence”?

He may have been a poet, but he would have made a great ultra-endurance cycling coach!

Time is a multiplier and an amplifier.

And that’s how to think about training. It doesn’t have to be fancy, long, loud or full of great proclamation.

Just get moving and keep moving.

Drip. Drip. Drip. Drip….

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BarrUltra is THE membership community for those who not only want to get on their bike, they want to get on a team.

If being part of an ultra-team provides some extra motivation to keep moving, contact us and let’s chat.