Using cycling as a lifestyle creates longevity for staying competitive and healthy. This show takes lessons from Tony Steward of joetoprocycling.com, whose life has been transformed by cycling and racing. We cover useful tips like balancing family life with cycling, the cycling mindset and dealing with beginners in the bunch.
This week on the show is Tony Steward of joetoprocycling.com. His vision is:
“to inspire people to step into the sport of cycling and wholeness of living that comes from health and positive self-belief”
His insights into being a new cyclist, and using cycling to better himself are refreshing. Wherever you are in your cycling journey you are going to get something out of this one.Find out the answers to these questions and more:
I’m sure many of you are starting to increase the intensity of your riding as you move into the build phases of your program. One hack that I want to point out is don’t make a pain face.What I mean by this is when you are in the pain cave, you have to be relaxed and this starts with the face.Squinting, grimacing and scrunching your face every time you're in the pain cave does nothing for your mind or your performance.It’s a waste of energy! Starting with the face will then shift your shoulders down, relaxing your arms and grip and moving from the hips down only, which is where the focus of your power should be, not up with your face. Also, the positive reinforcer of having a relaxed face and while putting your competition in the hurt box will drive them crazy.
On a slight tangent, do you do anything to play down how much you're hurting during a ride? My 2 favs are taking a couple of deep breaths, and essentially holding in all in when I pass another rider, and another is turning the pace up on a hill just as I grab my bidon. Oh, there’s an art to be so sneaky!
Back to the pain face though...consciously think about what your face is doing when you are tightening the screws in an interval or hard ride. Drop your jaw and let your eyes relax-or just channel Cadel’s blubber face...that works for me!
