By now you’ve probably seen a few stages of the Tour de France already and have seen some of shots of the riders warming up on trainers before the start of a stage. Ever wonder why they’re on those trainers before going out and riding for 4-5 hours? It’s not so the paparazzi can get their photos.

They’re on those trainers getting their bodies warmed up and ready to ride before the stage starts. If they don’t do this before the stage starts they won’t be ready for the physical stress of the stage and will likely perform poorly on the stage and risk potential injury.

The same goes for those of us who are just struggling to get our daily mileage in. If we don’t warm up properly we won’t be able to reap the benefits of our training.

Up until a few weeks ago I really didn’t warm up at all. I would hop on the bike and start out at 15-17 mph even though my target speed for my century is 15 mph. Starting out fast like that made me suffer later in the ride because I had not adequately warmed up and expended too much energy early.

Since then I have become religious in doing a 30 minute warm up before actually starting my training ride. That 30 minutes equates to six miles for me and seems to work good. I had no plan for how I would do my warm up other than easy spinning with a gradual increase in my speed over those first 6 miles until I was at 15 mph at mile 6. It seems to work for me and actually follows the stair-step format for the general warm up in the article I talk about below.

The article is a Cyclist Guide to Warm-Up: General to Specific and it has some pretty good info on why you need to do a warm-up and what you should do as a beginner, intermediate or advanced cyclist. A pretty interesting read.

So, do you warm up? If so, how, and if not, why?

With yesterday being Monday it was time for group/individual skills training with Team Bikin’. The weather was perfect and with 16 of us showing up it had the makings for a great evening of cycling.

After a four mile warm up we all gathered together in one of the large parking lots adjacent to the loop. For our first five laps the leader had us leave the parking lot and take the next half-lap easy (recovery) and for the half-lap back to the parking lot we were to sprint. Once at the parking lot we were to do six figure-eight drills for handling and then a quick-stop drill. After that we head back out onto the loop and repeat for four more laps.

We do have one stop sign on the loop that we do stop at. At the stop sign the group leader has got us practicing track stands in order to keep us from having to unclip at a stop sign. It was hard at first but I’m starting to get the hang of it. I can’t maintain it for long but I’m sure that’ll come with practice.

Once everyone was done with those five laps we re-grouped again in the parking lot to discuss the next five laps where he would have us work on pedaling out of the saddle.

For each of the next five laps he would have us do the following – one the uphill section leading up to the stop sign shift into the big chain ring and smallest cog for max resistance. Once shifted stand up out of the saddle and practice ‘walking’ up the hill. This is a deliberately slow pace to practice form out of the saddle including balance and spin. It actually takes an effort to not go fast despite the resistance from the gearing. Once at the stop sign we shift into a comfortable gear and for the next 3/4 lap sit 10 seconds in the saddle followed by 10 seconds out of the saddle. This helps get those riders not comfortable with this technique to practice being out of the saddle for a short period of time since this is the technique used to cross railroad tracks and cattle guards. The key was to mantain your weight back over the pedals so the front wheel remains responsive.

I’m very comfortable being out of the saddle for the 10 second obstacle crossing but am very glad we worked on going up hill out of the saddle since that’s a technique I really need to practice.

You’ve heard me talk a lot about how the terrain is different here in Texas than it was in Florida and that the hills have been giving trouble. I’m not talking big hills either. Most are, max, several hundred feet long and the grades aren’t severe except on a couple. I’m not used to them but I think my fitness has started to improve as of late and I’m wanting to ‘attack’ them now and I’ve seen better results. I think the ‘walking’ drill is going to help me take it up a notch in this area.

The last drill of the evening was five laps of two-person pacelines. Everyone was allowed to choose their own partner and it should be a slower rider paired with a faster rider. Since I still don’t really know anybody I just kind of waited for someone to come to me. I ended up paired with a guy named R.J. and we headed out.

Me being the slow rider led the first lap probably averaging about 15 mph. I could have gone faster but it was supposed to be a slow lap. R.J. took over for the second lap and took us around. I’m getting better at holding a wheel but felt we could have gone faster. I’m pretty sure he’s in much better shape than I am and he may have been taking it slow for me. On our fourth lap I was following again and he picked it up a little more. I looked once at the computer and we were going over 20 mph but I felt I had more to give. I’m sure that’s because I was drafting off him though. I felt we took the last turn perfectly with him leading in and me maintaining about 12 inches off his wheel at a fast pace. We came out of the turn and I was still nicely tucked in and on his wheel. That felt great.

We didn’t get the fifth lap in since the group had gathered up near the stop sign to call it a night. I felt it was a very good night of training and am glad I’m doing this. I think it’s helping a lot. I road two more laps by myself to push myself over the 20 mile mark for the night.

Next Monday, due to the holiday, we’re meeting early and planning a 3 hour training session. Can’t wait.

Last night I had group ride training again and I did something new. One-leg drills. These were pretty tough and I could really feel it in my legs. Here’s how it went down.

After my five lap warm up on the 0.8 mile loop the group leader has us do a single lap riding with both feet clipped in. About halfway through that lap there’s a parking lot where he had us pull off and do five figure eights for cornering drills. Then we finish that first lap with both feet clipped in. For the second lap we unclip one foot and ride one-legged for a full lap. The third lap we repeat the first lap. On the fourth lap we ride one-legged for the other foot unclipped and for lap five we repeat the first lap again.

I’ve never done anything like that and it was pretty though on my quads and hams. After those five laps we had a discussion about our spins during the one-leg portions and what we experienced. A few of us (me included) were experiencing surging and slack at the top of the upstroke. He attributed that to us not properly using our leg on the upstroke and told us to be more conscious of using the entire pedal revolution. Makes sense to me.

Next he had us do 3 laps individually – the first slow, the second hard and the third recovery – while maintaining as good a line as possible. The loop we ride has two very good seams in the concrete that lets us basically ride the line to help us. I seem to be able to do this very well because in our paceline sessions I always get complimented on how well I can ride a steady line. Maybe they’re just being nice…lol!

For the last five laps he had us get in groups of five and start a paceline with each rider taking a one lap pull and then falling to the back of the line. Our group worked pretty well together although I admittedly need more work on cornering in a paceline.

Overall I thought it was great training and got in 15 miles in the process. My legs were feeling it this morning due to those one-leg drills.