Cycling is a great way to tone up, stay fit and see the countryside. It is fun to do alone or with groups of friends or family. There are many cycle routes you can look up, some with cycle friendly concrete paths and others with dirt tracks for the more adventurous bikers.
Before you begin a cycle ride, be sure to look up your route so you know what to expect, how long it is and the intensity level. It doesn’t take long to do, so during a lunch break or after a game of partypoker , check out some routes and become familiar with them. Adventurous cyclist might enjoy off-road dirt tracks which allows them to cycle between the trees, ride over plants and tree roots and perform little jumps over ditches or race through puddles. It can be dangerous, but if you are used to these conditions and your tyres are sturdy, you should be fine.
Other cyclist might prefer the special tracks, designed for easy riding. They are normally gravel or concrete which makes it smoother to ride across. Easier routes tend to be flat paths, whereas a challenging route will take you uphill a lot.
It is always important to keep hydrated during your ride, so a bottle of water in your rucksack is recommended. Also, before you begin, it is important to have energy supplies with you. The best type of food for this includes bananas and energy bars. The night before you go cycling, try to have a big pasta dinner. Overnight this will digest and become fuel, ready for you to burn in the morning.
For those of you that train and race with a power-meter, you may have thought about holding a specific average power for your given event. There is a lot of talk about trying to eliminate power spikes and hold a steady wattage throughout your race. It makes sense to use your power meter to keep yourself in check if you tend to blow yourself up early on, or are insensitive to how the legs feel when you are pushing too hard. It seems, though, that some folks are taking this to the extreme and really looking to hold the same wattage on a downhill as they are on an uphill, no matter the course. This may work for a flat or slightly rolling type of course (i.e. Kona), but if you’ve got some actual climbing and fast descents to contend with, it’s not the most efficient way of getting the job done.
