Substack, Train How You Race & Cool Bikes
A bit of admin related things with regards to some changes to this publication, Train how you race and bike(s) of the week!
This is a bit of a different post, with one part a bit of an ‘admin’ update, one part excerpt of the latest article and one part a new feature I am playing with this year - Bike of the week!
Lets start with part one to just get it out of the way. Feel free to scroll down to the fun parts if you want though.
I have been having some issues with Substack lately.
The barrier to entry is super low, which is great because you can be up and running in no time… But that comes with a lot of limitations, like the lack of customization, lack of API access, lackluster SEO and more. Then there are the recent issues that have led to a lot of chatter and many publications leaving the platform all together. I don’t really want to get into too much detail here, but you can read this (one example) to get an idea on what’s happening.
I originally started this publication in May 2022. This week, I exported all the posts from Substack to Ghost. Not to worry, they are still here, but now they are also on another platform that offers me more flexibility.
I have been thinking a lot about what I wanted to do - Leave, or stay? I discovered so many great publications that feed my various interests on Substack and I realize that the same goes the other way around, with many of you finding my work through this platform.
I decided not to leave Substack, as there are still things I like and appreciate about it as a platform and I am hopeful they will make some positive changes, but I’m not all in anymore. This is the current plan - All posts will be shared on the new platform first, and then an excerpt with a link to the full article will be shared here.
If you want to get emails when I post something new through Substack, you don’t need to do anything. If you want to get posts on the new platform, you can either sign up there yourself or send me an email and I’ll take care of that for you.
UPDATE - APRIL 9th - I am back on Substack. While I like the flexibility Ghost offers, most of my readers come to my Substack publication and the transition has created too much confusion… So it simply makes more sense to stick with Substack.
Okay, now to more fun things.
Bike (s) Of The Week #1
I’m super excited to show you some of the awesome bikes I have the privilege of working on. For the most part, the bikes people bring to my studio are their pride and joy, no matter how much they cost or how experienced they are as riders, etc. I believe in showcasing all types of bikes, not just the superbikes, because everyone should do bikes differently, in a way that they enjoy, riding a bike that fits their riding goals, personality, and budget. It can be a $25K bike, or a $500 bike, it does not matter!
The first edition has been posted on Instagram, but I decided they need to be showcased on Endurance Collective too. Those two are definitely not budget bikes - Bridge Surveyor and No22 custom Drifter. Check them out photos and details below!
The final part of todays post is an article, like usual!
Should You Train Like You Race?
But maybe that should not be the case...? 🤔 As always, context is everything and it depends on various factors.
This topic came about while chatting to a young rider who used to race at a high level in one sport (sailing), and has now moved on to another sport (cycling). He has been riding for a few years now, but is still a bit new to the sport as a whole. During his latest bike fitting appointment, we were working on his posture, how he was interacting with the bike and the difference between how to ride relaxed, how to change the position for efforts and how posture changes between the two conditions and how it affects muscle recruitment, comfort, overall performance and more. He was riding the same, regardless of the context of the workout, because he was always told to train like you race.
He subscribes to this publication and I promised I will dive into this topic in more detail for everyone's reading pleasure, so here we are.
Should you train like you race?
As always, context is everything and it depends on various factors (if you have worked with me before, you'll know that it depends is basically my catch phrase).
Train like you race, sure, but should you do that all the time? Can you do that all the time? Another example is eat like you when you race. Yes, totally. But every single workout? Probably not.
A super quick Google search will land you on websites that tell you that if you want to race fast, you need to train fast. I guess on the surface, that makes sense. But I want to dig a bit deeper than surface level and give you a bit of food for thought here.
Nothing New on Race Day
Trying something new on race day can end in disaster. That said, years ago, someone I know once called triathlon a fancy word for 'shit happens' and it stuck with me (the same can be said for cycling too). You can plan not to do anything new on race day, but sometimes (read: almost all the time) something will happen and that plan might go out the window and you'll need to adapt and go to plan B on the fly, which might end up including something new on race day after all.
Most sports happen in an open environment, meaning there are a lot of factors that can not be controlled like the environment (ie. weather) and what other competitors do around you. As a result, the only thing you can plan for is how to react to things that come up unexpectedly. Directly training for it is challenging, other than potentially doing training races (like local crits), hard group rides that ideally take you over different routes as opposed to the same route every time and with different riders. When you always ride with the same people, you get to know their riding styles, how they react to things, etc. There is a certain level of predictability which is nice, but it does not necessarily help you learn how to adapt when riding with people you don't know, which is likely to happen in many events. The same goes for routes.
On the other hand, if you want to go fast in a TT event for example, and you have not spent enough time in the TT position in training, there is a very good chance you will hurt and not perform very well (or a combination of the two). This also goes for various technical skills needed for whatever sport you take part in.
Training Intensities, etc
I have seen people interpret train like you race as needing to always go hard, always go fast, always push.
If you have a well rounded training plan, you will train at various intensities and lets face it, most of them are going to be a fair bit easier than your race day intensity. Some of them, usually a relatively small amount, will be harder than your race day intensity. Some will be more similar to race intensity, too. As a result, it is impossible to always 'train like you race' - There is a time and a place for everything and you need to get good at knowing when it is a good idea, and when its just diminishing returns or worse, a recipe for developing injuries, overtraining and more.
This will also change depending on the phase of the season you are in. Closer to your events, regardless of what those are, you will want to do more specific training sessions, ones that help you prepare appropriately. Lets go back to that TT example, or riding in an aero position in general. You need to practice riding in those positions, ideally in race specific watts. Realistically, you simply can not, and should not do that on every single ride - Trying to get aero while doing a recovery ride for example is not really all that effective, and kind of negates the whole point of a recovery ride.
So, should you train like you race? Some of the time.
The magic lies in figuring out the best time and place to do so for your individual needs, goals, overall health and longevity in sport. Side note - The last two are pretty important in my opinion, as I am a believer that sport is for life, just perhaps in different capacities throughout the years.
I hope you found this article valuable and interesting. The goal here was to give you a bit of food for thought and I hope I achieved that. I would love to hear your thoughts, so feel free to comment below and share this post with others!
Noa