Your training questions answered with Dig Deep Coaching

We often get asked here at CyclingTips why we don’t publish more tips, given that’s how the site began. One of the reasons is that there’s only so many times you can write about how to hold your position in the crosswinds! With our new collaboration you’ll be able to tell us what you want to know to improve your cycling and the team at Dig Deep Coaching will be able to help you out.

Led by director and former pro Stephen Gallagher, Dig Deep Coaching is a global coaching company with coaches that specialise in road racing, MTB, cyclocross and triathlon. The team includes former and current pros, sports physiologists, nutritionists, dietitians, bike-fit experts, massage therapists and more.

Stephen and his team will be able to answer just about any question you might have when it comes to improving your cycling, and we’ll ensure the question gets sent to the relevant person to answer.

So what sort of things can you ask? Well, what we don’t want is generic questions like “how do I improve my climbing?” or “how do I become a better sprinter?”. We want more focused questions that allow the coaches to be more specific in their response, providing the most useful information they can. Try something like “I can climb with the lead bunch in races but when the pace lifts momentarily I struggle to hang on. What kind of things can I incorporate into my training to solve that?”

Every month we’ll check in with the guys at Dig Deep Coaching and publish a post with their responses to the best questions of the month.

How can you submit your question? Simply send an email to [email protected] with the subject line “Dig Deep Coaching question” and we’ll forward it on to the appropriate person at Dig Deep.

So, start sending in your questions now and we’ll have our first instalment for you after the Tour de France!

http://subcontinentalcyclist.wordpress.com/ Ankush Agarwal

This is awesome, get ready for a flurry of emails from me :-)
Former Golfer

I’m interested in improving my strava times between Port Melbourne and St Kilda. I have already spent over $300k on several bikes, an assos factory and thule roof racks for my x5. Can you help?
- jim
  
  Nobody can help you … umm… try running the red lights ??
  (where’s the smiley face to indicate this is a joke ?)
  - Former Golfer
    
    This is no joke..
    - The Real Former Golfer
      
      ;-)
- mattb
  
  The bitchiness is slowing you down?
- Jake
  
  The problem is the Assos. You should switch to Rapha.
- echidna_sg
  
  don’t get out of the X5 but still start strava *duh*
- still a chump
  
  Is that you hollywood? Former golfer?? you were never any good at golf……so correction should read “former footy player”. At least now I understand why you keep buying lighter and sleeker stuff. I have no idea why I do it.
- [email protected]
  
  Since I have a bit of time on my hands, I thought I’d share a big idea I’ve had after I recently had some issues with the more traditional methods.
  
  The key to everything is baked beans. Eat lots of them every day before riding. You’ll get a nice little rocket boost, nobody will try to follow your wheel to the finish of the segment (almost nobody, Gerro would still suck your wheel) and even Travis Tygart himself won’t want to get close enough for a sample so you can do anything else you want as well.
  
  Failing that, try digitalepo.com as I’ll be doing for the next year or two.
  
  DI.
Michael

All positive here Wade.
Robbie on the Gold Coast

Hi Coach,

I’m struggling with the long Grand Tour stages and need some help. I usually cope pretty well until about 60km to go, but then I find myself dropping off a bit, the shoulders start to roll and my head starts nodding as I try to keep up. Soon enough I’ve fallen asleep mid-race and come off my seat completely.

The worst bit is that sometimes I then wake up and find that I haven’t slept long enough for the weather map to come on, and I get assaulted by the horrifying prospect of watching the Tan Man put the an@l into post-race analysis and not being able to shout at the TV that he’s wrong because I missed the final 45km.

Should I be working my way up from making it all the way though shorter races first before trying the big GT’s, or can you point me towards some more radical training or pharmaceutical methods I can put in place immediately for this year’s TdF?
- Robbie on the Gold Coast
  
  Forgot to add that I did okay the last time the Tour started in England, but the last few years have been harder to keep up. Any suggestions as to why I’m no longer up to it?
  - jules
    
    How did you go with the Dauphine this year, which had earlier stage times?
- George Colombarus
  
  Maybe I can be of assistance;
  
  By now all the training should have been done. We’ve had races such as Tour Down Under and Qatar to ease your self back into the racing before hitting Europe with Tirreno and Paris-nice. The spring classics were next starting with the torturous Milan - San Remo (tell me you watched it as this was an essential lead-up race). After that I hope you took a break before hitting the Giro otherwise you may be too fatigued and by the 2nd week of the TDF you could find yourself in a bad way! (Chronic Fatigue, glandular or unemployed, the latter could be good). Ideally you chose Tour de Suisse as your lead up race over the Dauphine, as the dauphine finished well before 11pm sometimes (not really training) whilst the TdS had a much harder lead in with later hours and less exciting racing, a perfect race to prime you for the 3 weeks. On the side I would suggest watching one of Masterchef or My kitchen rules (preferably 3-4 X a week) to prepare yourself for Gabriel. Include a weekly serve of Cycling Central so you can prepare a mental strategy as to how you handle public enemy no1,l’homme bronzage ( the Tan man) personally I haven’t watched Cycling Central so this could be my undoing. Following these instructions you should come in better prepared than Froome himself.
  Falling short of this I would say take the same approach to it as you would any race or TT.
  If you begin to fatigue take a No Doz. Literature says anywhere from 3-6mg/kg of BW is ideal. However as it’s the TOUR!!! I would recommend going on the heavy side of this and really pouring it on for those flat stages…… as they can be a bore!
  
  Otherwise come see me down at the Essendon Anti-ageing medical clinic where I could put you on some……better stuff ;) better yet the AFL will have your back.
  - Dave
    
    Would not suggest people go too hard on the Tan Man training, he’s apparently doing online articles only this year - but don’t abandon it completely as it only needs one freak transmission failure or mysterious illness to another SBS personality.
    
    Not so sure about your suggestion of doing the Giro and Tour in one season, anyone wanting to survive the Tour should probably skip the Giro in my mind. Taking in the excitement and unpredictability of the Giro is great, but to follow it with the formulaic procession of the robotic Sky Train around France would be likely to have you on your back and out for the count faster than the risky combination of a pack of Tramadol, an opening stage team time trial and putting pandas all over your kit.
jules

I’m pretty sorted, got just about everything down to a fine art. But racing D grade I find that on criterium courses with a slight incline I tend to lose ground on the bunch. Any hints?
- donncha
  
  You need to increase your FTP (Forgo The Pies)
Panadol

I keep finding that I keep heading off the road on decents into a ditch or a fence or similiar. This has happened dozens of times now and I am getting sick of it. Can you recommend a good technique?
- xponti
  
  Yeah, When approaching the corner you need to apply force to the handbars resulting in them turning the bike around the corner. You are probably trying to corner in a straight line which is the whole issue here.
  - http://whatspossible.com.au/ Scott Barrow
    
    Ha!
- Dave
  
  Hi Wiggo, how about go back to track racing? As a bonus, there are fewer teammate relationships to worry about in an individual pursuit.
Alan

I take part in Gran Fondos (a bunch of enthusiasts pretending to race) and Audax (a bunch of enthusiasts pretending not to race) but I always find myself enjoying the scenery, chatting to total strangers and offering, unbidden, to do a turn at the front now and then. What am I doing wrong?

Your training questions answered with Dig Deep Coaching

by CyclingTips