With Round 4 of NPS Cross Country taking place this coming Sunday in Bellurgan Park in Co louth, Scott Eurocycles.com rider and overall points leader Gareth Hegarty gives us his top 5 tips
- Enjoy it; You will spend long hours on the bike either training or competing, so make sure you are having fun and that you are enjoying what you’re doing. There is a fun time to the sport. Nothing beats being out on the bike on the trails and enjoying the country side
- Join a club, riding your bike with other people can make the time fly by. If you are riding with people who are better than you, your skills and fitness will improve very quickly. You will also be able to get great advice about all aspects of the sport
- Structure your race weekend; I always make sure my race days are structured, to prevent any last minute dramas. I will always pack my bag on the eve the event, so I know where everything is on the morning. Race day itself, is always structure. I will also have a routine. I will know myself where I am meant to be 60 mins, 30 mins and 15 mins before race start. I find this help ease the pre-race nerves
- Warm up properly; This is crucial, similar to my race race day routine, I have a structure in place for my warms ups. A typical warm up will be as follows; 5 minutes of spinning my legs, equivalent to the pace you would be on the bike if you were on the bike for 3-4 hours. Then I would starting upping the tempo a bit, flick up a gear or two and just push a slightly higher resistance, so that I am at about 60%, and do this for another 5 minutes. I then do 3 high cadence sprints, which each effort lasting 5 seconds, with a recovery time in between of 1 minute. After these efforts, I will spin the legs for another 2 minutes, then do some harder efforts. The harder efforts are 2 minutes at 70-80%, 2 minutes easy then 2 minutes at 80-90%. For the remainder of time before the race start, I just spin the legs, maybe throw in a sprint or two if I feel like I need it.
- Hire a coach and vary your training; If you decide to take the sport more serious, you should explore
Gareth receiving his prize from Nico Roche for winning the A3 race at the Stephen Roche GP Picture Credit (John Hammers)
the possibility of hiring a coach. Do your research when it comes to hiring a coach. Speak with fellow competitors, club mates or training partners for recommendations on coaches. Meet with your coach and to set goals. Coaches have wealth of experience which you can tap into. As well as choosing a coach, vary your training routine to prevent it become boring. In my own case I vary my training with gym work, interval training and other cycling disciplines (Gareth won the A3 race at the recent Stephen Roche GP)
