Movistar Team Blogs

Basque rouleur offers us advice for every cyclist to smile at every pedal stroke + reaching the goals they've set on themselves without getting too stressed.

We riders take on impressive amounts of work throughout the season to reach the main races in the best possible form, spending a lot of time training and even exceeding -in my particular case- 20,000 or even 25,000 kilometers per year. Since it’s not always easy to get out and train, here’s some advice I can share with you to keep going:

 1) MOTIVATION. You’ve got to seek for goals, challenges. It’s crucial to set your sights on a goal and thus have a way of starting to work for something, find an incentive. That objective can be a competition or just overcoming your own barriers by reaching as far as possible in a certain amount of time.

2) UNDERSTANDING WHY A SPECIFIC TRAINING RIDE IS IMPORTANT. It’s absolutely necessary to know why we’re following a certain training plan and look ahead towards the future. For instance, you might be facing a painful series of mountain efforts today, which you might hate, but you know that, in that next race / ride in the future, that will help you keep a more consistent pace on the climbs, which makes you tackle the effort with a better will.

3) USE APPROPRIATE, COMFORTABLE CLOTHING. Choose the wear you’re going to use depending on the weather you’re facing, and look further ahead. It’s easier to avoid the heat rather than seeking for a solution to low temperatures. Riding comfortably is also really important, which requires from you to revise your shoes and bibshorts and check if they’re perfectly fine or rather have any defects which can make you suffer later on.

4) KEEP YOUR BIKE IN CHECK. It’s also important to have your machine clean and ready: check your tyre pressures, keep your gearing sorted out and oiled, also check your brakes to avoid any incidents, etc.

5) DISTRIBUTE YOUR ENERGIES ADEQUATELY. It’s important to plan your route with a coffee stop. Even if it might seem a bit silly, take a short break during the ride allows you catching some air and continue fresher.

6) SEEK FOR COMPANY. When you share your ride with someone, the route is easier to tackle. This is 100% necessary at rainy days, those when it’s harder to get out.

7) FIND NEW ROADS. Changing your training routes breaks routine and helps you continue training. Platforms like Strava or Wikiloc help you find roads shared by riders like you. On the other hand, it’s usually advisable to take your car out, drive 30 minutes towards another area and see your training roads changing completely – which is useful if it’s raining at your usual place.

8) ACTIVE HOLIDAYS. Take your bike to wherever you go on vacation, enjoy some new routes and different weather. Sport tourism is getting fashionable at many places you’ve already heard of. Benidorm, Calpe, Girona, Andorra… every place can be good!

9) COMBINING CYCLING WITH ANOTHER SPORT. You can just change disciplines: go for some cross-country mountain bike riding, do cyclo-cross, some virtual cycling (you might like to have a look at the new platform launched by Movistar and Bkool), or simply seek for other sports, go running or visit the gym.

10) Last but not least, if you’re tired of planning on everything, treat yourself to a ‘DATA-FREE DAY’! Go training with no tracking devices. Just pedal, with the only goal of keeping your mind fresh, and enjoy.

— Follow Lourdes at her social media profiles on Instagram, Twitter, Strava and Facebook.