What Beginner and Advanced Cyclists Can Learn From Each Other

Indoor cycling classes are one of the few places where a beginner and an advanced cyclist can both get "on the road" together to enjoy the same experience. Think about it: If Lance Armstrong came into your spin class, you could be seated next to a world-class athlete getting in his workout while you are inches away getting yours. Few other venues will give you such opportunities.

What does this mean? It means that in any cycling fitness class, the opportunity to learn something can change anytime you find yourself next to someone new. Whether you're an advanced cyclist training for triathlon and Ironman, or a first-timer who is just learning how to set up your bike, there's a lesson for all of us in our workout neighbor.

Three Things Beginners Can Learn From Advanced Riders

1) It's okay to take risks.

Don't be afraid to turn up the tension a little bit more than usual on your hills and sprints. If you're doing everything the instructor says and you feel like you could give a little more, add some extra resistance and see what happens. If it feels like too much you can change it back and you've established a new goal to work toward. If it feels good, then you've gained strength and are ready to take your workout to the next level.

2) It's okay to be a little bit uncomfortable.

You know the cliche' - No pain, no gain. Beginners tend to ride at whatever level they need to in order to feel comfortable. This is fine at first, but it will eventually present a "plateau" in your progress and your body will no longer burn calories and build muscle the way it used to. A good workout shouldn't kill you - but it should let you know that it stopped by. Pushing yourself to hold onto an effort that takes you out of the comfort zone for a period of time is a good thing. The body moves past the "comfort plateau" and adapts to harder efforts as your fitness level increases.

3) It's okay to look the part.

You don't need to be a cyclist to look like one! Many cyclists will come to class wearing their bike jerseys and cycling shorts (beginners- you should know those shorts come with a padded area that can help you become acclimated to the unforgiving bike seats!). Wearing cycling gear can help put you in the right frame of mind for your workout and inspire the visualization process as you envision the road throughout class.

Three Things Advanced Riders Can Learn From Beginners

1) You don't have to take everything so seriously!

Advanced riders will have a hard time letting go of their competitive spirit while in class, for a variety of reasons. With all the focus on visualizing the road, most advanced cyclists can easily sync their physical activity with their mental awareness of how the body would feel if they were actually riding outside. Most cyclists don't have the luxury of riding with a personal coach when they're on the road, or music to pace them. Spinning classes offer a nice departure from having to do all the work themselves as they suddenly have an instructor and a bass beat guiding them through each twist and turn. That being said, it's not necessary to MASTER each twist and turn to get an effective workout. Advanced riders should remember that indoor cycling classes are fun and need not be treated like the Tour de France every single time.

2) It's okay to modify the workout.

Just because the instructor is asking you to ride a steep hill, that doesn't mean you have to do it. If you're not in the mood for a hill or you're looking for a less intense workout that day, feel free to modify the workout to fit your needs. Find a quicker beat within the song and strip the resistance back so you can make the hill into an easy flat - or vice versa. Fast songs can easily be made into hills by slowing the pace to the half-time beat and adding resistance in order to pedal at a slower pace.

3) It's okay to join the party.

This goes along with "don't take things so seriously," but it's important enough that I feel it should have its own spot on this list. Part of the fun of a group fitness class is the camaraderie it creates among the members. There is a sense of "team" in a cycling fitness class where everyone is riding in a pack to get from Point A to Point B. Advanced cyclists will put on their game faces and engage in an all-out assault on their imaginary race-day competitors, while Beginners will "Woot!" in enthusiasm while topping off a hill or hammering out a flat. Such enthusiasm is not typically found in a triathlon or cycling race, and certainly not while cycling solo on the road. But in a spinning class, "joining the party" is almost a prerequisite to come in the room.

The Everyday Triathlete and the PB

No, this is not a post about peanut butter. PB is a common term in triathlon lingo referring to one’s “personal best” time recorded in a race event. This can also be noted by the term “PR” for personal record.

As an everyday triathlete, you may not think this applies to you—but you’d be wrong. Noting a PB or a PR is something that all athletes should do, and it has nothing to do with being the best or setting a record.

It has to do with personal growth and goal setting.

The very first race you do should be about simply finishing (no matter how much time it takes). The time on the clock when you complete the race is a record of your time spent on the course and the courage it took to sign up and train for your first triathlon. Don’t pressure yourself by putting any more meaning into it than that.

This is true whenever you’re doing something new for the first time. Your first 5K, your first sprint triathlon, your first 10K, your first Olympic distance triathlon, your first half-marathon, your first half-Ironman, etc. These “first times” give you a base level of information about yourself as an athlete, and something to use as a benchmark for future goals.

As you do more races of the same distance, you can then compare times to chart improvement—but be careful not to get too caught up in the hype of the overall finishing time.

In triathlon, there are six official times associated with your race. They are:

• Swim time
• Transition time from swim to bike
• Bike time
• Transition time from bike to run
• Run time
• Overall finish time (comprised of all 5 times listed above)

This means that each race gives you six opportunities to improve the next time you do a race of the same distance. So while you may complete your race feeling let down about your overall finishing time, you might notice that you actually logged a personal best on the bike!

With six separate times to analyze, there is ample opportunity to celebrate the small victories that are always there for the taking even despite what could be perceived as a big loss at first sight.

Triathlon’s six distinct times remind us that it’s okay to make race day about the journey, not the destination.

Few of us get to show up to races anticipating the kind of win that would land us on the podium with a giant trophy in our hands. We will not be sponsored, or singled out for our athletic prowess, and we won’t be breaking any world records on the courses where we race.

The beauty of triathlon is that “wins” don’t have to be measured in terms of podiums and points. Unlike professional sports teams, we don’t need to try out before we’re invited to participate. We don’t need to prove anything to anyone but ourselves. The best athletes in the world will race the same courses as the everyday triathletes, yet the winners of that race will vary just as much as the participants who toe the line.

Your “personal best” is all about you. If you shave even a second from your previous finishing times, you’ve won on some level.

PBs don’t always come in numerical form, either. If you feel that you put forth a new kind of effort that unveiled something new about you as an athlete, that’s a win. Were you pushing yourself through barriers that you weren’t used to such as leg cramps or extreme temperatures? These conditions might inflate your times more than you’d like, but you should allow them to inflate your ego, too.

Many athletes find themselves caught in the drama of having to meet pre-defined expectations. This happens because they’re comparing themselves to other people who they believe they are similar to, or because they believe that having certain gear should lead to the kind of performance they want to have.

Buying a fast bike doesn’t guarantee you’ll ride a fast bike split. Remember that the legs are only as fast as the mind will allow them to go, and if your racing strategy is based on gear rather than guts, you will likely feel let down by your performances. Of course high-quality equipment can help us to improve our performance, but it’s only going to amplify the athlete that’s already there—not create a new one on the spot.

You must nurture the heart and soul of this sport from the inside, by believing in yourself and practicing the small victories before you chase after the larger ones.

Establish your personal parameters for “success” in training and racing, and then make it a point to celebrate them accordingly. 

A New Attitude for Old Gear

Tankini, mountain bike, duct tape and beach towel. This might sound like the list of things to pack for a camping trip, but it was actually the checklist for my first triathlon.

While triathlon can be daunting in many ways, the “gear” is one that stands out to many as a clear differentiator between those that are “in the know,” and those that are not.

What you really need to know is that money isn’t necessary to have fun in this sport. If you’ve never been to a race before, you may not be aware of how many options you actually have as a triathlete.

There are literally hundreds of combinations of components for bicycles alone, let alone types of wetsuits, nutrition options, running shoes, etc.  The most important thing you need in triathlon (that isn’t available in any sporting goods store) is a great attitude.

With three sports going at once, many things could go wrong. As a triathlete, you must learn to take each race in stride and roll with the punches.

Leaky goggles during the swim, flat tires during the bike leg, and cramped up calves during the run may threaten to derail your triathlon success, but it’s up to you to determine how much of that will matter.

A “can-do” attitude is necessary to stay positive even when your race is shaping up to be an impossible journey through endless obstacles. Whether you’re the person on the $600 bike or the $25,000 bike, racing in a torrential downpour will challenge your ability to stay positive on the course—and there’s nothing you can buy to make that situation any better.

It’s actually easier to buy expensive gear than it is to summon your can-do attitude. Assuming we all had disposable income, shopping for items that make triathlon more appealing wouldn’t be too hard. Some of us would do research to figure out the best brands to buy, while others would simply throw down cash for whichever products were the most expensive.

Can-do attitude doesn’t work like that.

In order to truly realize your potential as a triathlete, you need to look far beyond the wallet and discover what drives you in this sport. For many (myself included), training for triathlon is an ongoing conversation with our bodies and minds to consistently meet and exceed challenges. The sport reminds us that we’re healthy and capable of doing more than the bare minimum—that we can exceed our own expectations and tap into extraordinary discipline, willpower and energy.

This kind of “self-actualization” may not shine as obviously as a Pinarello Dogma racked in the transition area, but it will reveal itself through the smiles of those athletes who, despite their challenges, continue to plod along the course to complete their mission.

You’ve seen it before—people with prosthetic legs who run past you on the course, or people with no legs who use their arms to cover distance with great speed. You’ve seen it in the athletes who are older than you, are overweight, or otherwise “seemingly” unqualified to be passing you in the swim, bike or run.

These people aren’t passing you because they have money—they’re passing you because they have heart.

Like anything else in life, triathlon has a place for those who like to spend money and show off their toys, and that’s okay. For some, appreciating the value of high quality gear is a big part of the sport. For others, it’s an opportunity to enjoy the outdoors a bit more. In that respect, it’s not much different than the camping list I referenced at the beginning of this post.

Whatever triathlon means to you, it’s important to stay true to that and not to get swept into the hype of having the best gear, or being the best athlete.

Life gives us plenty of reasons to worry about time and money. Let triathlon be an opportunity to worry about energy and attitude.

There's a new 5K in Town

Over the past decade, triathlon has been growing in popularity, and especially among women. Female memberships with the USAT have been climbing at a rate of 1% per year since 2000, and as of 2008, they accounted for 40% of total memberships. This year, our country will host 30 female-only triathlon races, thanks to groups such as Iron Girl, SheRox, the Danskin Women’s Triathlon Series, and the Trek Women Triathlon Series—proving that women will continue to gain share as one of the sport’s biggest enthusiasts. (That's not bad when you consider that it was just a little over 40 years ago when the U.S. Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) Women's Committee increased the legal running distance for women to 5 miles!)

Running is responsible for the birth of many new triathletes, as people look for new challenges beyond 5Ks, 10ks, half marathons and full marathons. People have become comfortable with road races, as evidenced by the seemingly ubiquitous "13.1" and "26.2" ovals plastered on a good majority of motor vehicles (I've been counting them during my daily commute to and from work, and average about 5 per day!)

People of all shapes and sizes are running races, fueled by the challenge of covering distance for personal fitness, to raise money for charity, to support a cause, or simply because it's fun. Triathlon offers the same opportunities, just through three sports instead of one. USAT, the governing body for the sport of triathlon, suggests that growth in triathlon can be attributed to the society's interest in fitness and living a healthy lifestyle, along with increased resources and information on how to participate in the sport.

In 2004, triathlon was added as an official event in the Summer Olympics. Just two years ago, Jennifer Lopez completed the Nautica Triathlon bringing more buzz to the sport.

Chances are, you know someone who trains for triathlons.

You know your runner friends? Keep checking the back of their car to see if that "26.2" has been replaced with a "70.3" or "140.6" sticker (that's the number which refers to the total miles covered in a half- or full-Ironman race).

Next time you're in your local sporting goods store, take a peek around and see if any new products are creeping into the mix. Most cycling or running specialty shops now carry items that cater to multi-sport athletes.

Triathlon has come down to the community level, and you don’t have to be a professional athlete or a star to reap the benefits of the multisport lifestyle. The truth is—triathlon offers a workout that promises to make your water bottle feel like a fountain of youth, thanks to the sport’s anchor in the basics of childhood fun—swimming, biking and running. By focusing on three disciplines at once, cross training is inherent in triathlon, thereby offering more benefits than training for a single sport. According to the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons, cross training provides a “total body tune-up,” something you won’t get if you concentrate on just one type of activity.

Who's doing triathlon? Everyday people just like you.

Sprint triathlons are the new 5K--home to a variety of characters who toe the line for reasons ranging from fun to fitness and everything in between. And while the whole scene can seem daunting at first (wetsuits, bikes, transitions, and what's going on with the markers and the thighs?), it's really just your local 5K amped up with more fun.

This is a blog for you - the Everyday Triathlete. I'm here to make sure YOU can get in on the multisport action, and to squash the myth that you have to be in excellent shape, make lots of money and have lots of time to get into triathlon and enjoy it.

Think about the "Real Men of Genius" commercials from Bud Light. Now imagine that cheesy song playing in the background, and read the following lines with can-do attitude:

Today I salute you, Everday Triathlete. Orange Cheetos-stained fingers around that beer you didn't need, but cracked open anyway. Body poised perfectly atop that used bike you found on Ebay. (Cue back-up singer: "Old piece of craaaap") Smiling like you own the world because you just had a really great swim, bike or run (Cue back-up singer: "Really, really awesome workout") Who's in the house? An athlete's in the house (You're a starrrrr!). So crack open a new browser--because this blog's for you!