The Six Ways to Train for Cycling

FasCat Coaching

Everyone wants to improve on the bike, and there are six primary ways to do so:

1. Hire a coach

2. Follow a training plan

3. Self coach

4. Leverage your data

5. Follow a training plan, and self coach by leveraging your data

6. Just ride 

Let’s go through the pros and cons of each of these.

1 - HIRE A COACH

There is no better way to get faster than having a dedicated professional assess your strengths and weaknesses, build a training plan for your goals, and then guide you through the process. It is the best and fastest way to improve, but for some it may be too big of a commitment.

2 - FOLLOW A PLAN

If you can follow a plan, you can ride faster! Sounds simple, right? Thing is, you have to apply the ‘follow the plan’ part to get the ‘ride faster’ part. If you can follow a plan, though, a well thought out plan specific to your goal is an excellent, effective solution.

Start your free, 14-day trial of Optimize - FasCat’s complete training solution!

3 - SELF COACH

The cost is great (it’s free!), but the success rate here depends on how much you know! Self coaching involves making training decisions for yourself. And that’s great if you make the right decisions but you don’t even know because you don’t know so often self-coaching involves trial and error, and improving takes longer

4 - LEVERAGE YOUR DATA

When you focus on numbers, you can improve! Being data driven is a super smart and practical approach. But some riders get too far into the weeds and miss the big picture. Riders obsess on a particular number like training load or max power and forget to focus recovery, nutrition, consistency, and pack-riding skills, not to mention the simple joy of cycling! 

5 - FOLLOW A PLAN & LEVERAGE YOUR DATA

Combining a training plan with some feedback from your data is an excellent solution for many athletes. This way, you don’t have to reinvent the wheel yourself (just follow the plan), and you have data to keep you on track (like simple recovery metrics inside Optimize).

To do it well, you hit all Five Fundamentals of Faster, which are:

• Be consistent yet flexible

• Ride more

• Train all zones

• Rest

• Eat right

Solution number five is the most practical solution in terms of being an all-around fun, flexible, and data-driven improvement solution. Start your free, 14-day trial of Optimize today so that you can self coach and leverage your data!

6 - JUST RIDE

This is old school. And this method may work for the talented, experienced athlete. We all have that gal and guy in our community and on our group ride. They just are flat out good at cycling. Chalk it up to genetics and/or years and years of riding. If you’ve been in cycling for that long this may be you, but we still encourage you to use your data inside Optimize to track your stats and monitor the big picture.

Start your free, 14-day trial of Optimize - FasCat’s complete training solution!