Get Ready For Triathlon Season

If you’re thinking about doing one or more of the three triathlons this summer here in San Angelo, start training now.

The first summer triathlon is only eight weeks away.

The local multisport events scheduled for this summer are the Lake Nasworthy sprint triathlon on July 12, the Goodfellow Triathlon on July 26 and the Wool Capitol triathlon on Aug. 10.

All of these events take place at different locations on Lake Nasworthy. Although the lake’s water level is low, the events are still on track to take place as scheduled.

The race directors for the July 12 and Aug. 10 events have already noted that if the water level drops too low to allow for a safe swim and back-to-the-beach transition, their event will change to a run-bike-run duathlon instead of a swim-bike-run triathlon.

Hopefully there will be enough water to swim in.

The Lake Nasworthy sprint triathlon on July 12 will be perfect for beginners and casual triathletes with its short 300-yard swim, 10-mile bike and two-mile run. For more experienced triathletes, the short distances will provide a great speed workout to complement their training for longer events.

Race distances increase a little for the July 26 Goodfellow Triathlon, but the event is still short enough to be very doable for new triathletes. It will consist of a 400-meter swim at the Goodfellow Recreation Camp’s marina, a 20-kilometer (12.4 mile) bike leg, and a 5K (3.1-mile run).

The final San Angelo triathlon of the season will be the Wool Capitol event on Aug. 10. This race has traditionally been held in Middle Concho Park but may be moved to Spring Creek Park this year due to low water in the Middle Concho channel and concerns about traffic on Red Bluff Road.

There will be two distances for the 2014 Wool Capitol triathlon. The Olympic distance race will include a 1,500-meter swim, 40K (24.8 mile) bike, and a 10K (6.2 mile) run, with the shorter sprint distance race being a 400-meter swim, 20K bike, and two-mile run.

All three of these triathlons have both individual and team categories, so you have the option of teaming up with friends to race in the team category.

A typical weekly training program for a triathlon includes swimming, cycling and running workouts along with stretching, strength training and transition practice.

Individuals such as cyclists and runners who are normally single-sport athletes will need to adjust their weekly training plan to add workouts in the other two disciplines.

The swim leg of a triathlon is the most difficult for many people. Although most swim workouts can be done in a pool, it’s a good idea to do some open water swims in the lake so that you are comfortable with deep water, no swim lanes and no pool walls to grab if you need to rest.

The swim beach at Lake Nasworthy (Mary E Lee Park) is a good place to do these open water swims, and also an ideal location to do ‘brick’ workouts and swim-bike-run triathlon simulations.

Brick workouts normally consist of a bike ride followed by a run. This workout helps you prepare for the final run leg of a triathlon which follows the bike leg.

Trying to run fast on legs that are already tired from cycling is difficult, so doing a brick workout once or twice each week during your triathlon training will help prepare your body for the bike-to-run transition.

You might want to also prepare for the possibility that one or more of these triathlons could become a run-bike-run duathlon. A good strategy is to do a few ‘reverse bricks’ during your training where you start with a running workout and then transition to a fast bike ride.

If you’re thinking about doing your first triathlon and are not sure about what workouts to start doing, go to www.beginnertriathlete.com/cms/article-detail.asp?articleid=28 to view some typical training programs.

Remember — triathlon season is approaching and it’s time to start training.

Upcoming Events
June 5: Road bike time trial series, angelobike.org
June 7: Run in the Sun 8K, roadlizards.org
June 14: Tour de Burma, http://angelobike.org/tour-de-burma/
June 21: Stop, Drop and Roll, roadlizards.org
July 12: Lake Nasworthy Triathlon, roadlizards.org
July 26: Goodfellow Triathlon, roadlizards.org
Aug. 10: Olympic and sprint distance triathlon, Spring Creek Park

Local Athletes Do Well

San Angelo is home to a growing number of good endurance athletes who don’t always get community-wide recognition for their accomplishments, so this week’s column will spotlight some of those individuals and what they have done thus far in 2014.

Give them a big round of applause (and maybe an energy bar or two) the next time you see them out training for an upcoming event.

Triathlon
Local triathlete Sebastian Haynes, a 2013 Ironman World Championship qualifier who is also a very good distance runner, recently posted age group wins at both the Galveston and Marble Falls 70.3 (half Ironman) events.

His first-place finish at Galveston in a time of 4 hours, 25 minutes earned him a trip to the 70.3 World Championships in Canada later this year, and he also placed first in his age group and second overall in the Marble Falls race with a time of 4:26.

 Haynes has steadily improved since racing his first triathlons in 2009 and we will continue to see even better results from this 23-year-old athlete.

Mason Vaughn (Eldorado), Cory Sanders, and Nick Boyter have also turned in some good triathlon results. Vaughn finished the Galveston 70.3 event with a time of 5: 55, and Sanders raced the Marble Falls 70.3, finishing in 5:54. Boyter raced the Olympic distance event in Marble Falls, completing the 1500-meter swim, 40K bike, and 10K run in 2:37 to place 21st overall among 140 competitors.

Distance Running
Runners from the San Angelo area have posted some impressive results in long distance events ranging from the half-marathon (13.1 mile) distance up to ultra trail runs that cover 100 kilometers (62 miles).

 At the half marathon distance, Sebastian Haynes clocked a time of 1:18 to finish fourth in his age group in Austin’s 3M event, and Myrna Lackey did a great job of representing Team RWB in the Abilene Kirk Goodwin Run half marathon with a third-place age group finish in that event.

Team RWB was also well represented in the Army Half Marathon with San Angelo RWB team captain Tim Masshardt running a solid 1:42 race to take fourth in his age group and Sam Spooner clocking a 2-hour time to garner 16th in his category.

Several local runners completed 26.2 mile marathons recently, including Mertzon’s Brian Tillman who ran a 3:15 in the Army Marathon despite the 25-degree wind chill. His time was good enough to place him 10th overall, first in the 40-44 age group, and possibly qualify him for next year’s Boston Marathon. Sebastian Haynes, who qualified for and ran last year’s Boston event, finished the highly competitive Austin Marathon in 2:51 to place 24th overall and fourth in his age group.

Other recent marathon finishers from San Angelo include former ASU athletes Becca Simmons and Trista Box who ran the Big D marathon. Simmons finished the 26.2-mile race in 3:58 with training partner Box turning in a time of 4:08.

Long distance runners from this area have also completed multiple long distance ‘Ultra” runs (typically 50 kilometers and longer). Dean Martin, Mark Huteson, Kent Fish, and Janis Jenkins all finished the Bandera 100K run (62 miles), with their finishing times being 13:50 for Martin, 17:19 for both Fish and Huteson, and 17:29 for Jenkins.

In the Bandera 50K (31 miles), local finishers included Garret Baker (6:08), Mike Buck (7:50), and Cliff DeLaCerda (8:57). Martin, Huteson, Fish, and Buck have completed this year’s Rocky 50, Nueces, and Hell’s Hill 50 mile or 50K trail running events with Martin also adding the Brazos Bend 50-mile run to his list of 2014 accomplishments.

Cycling
Two ‘mature’ cyclists from San Angelo continue to dominate the local time trial events and have also done well in state-wide races. In mountain biking, 57-year-old Tony Studivant continues to dominate the off-road time trial series just as he has done for the past several years.

Studivant posted a very fast time of 22:46 on the rough six mile mountain bike course during race one of the six-event series, and is also currently ranked fourth overall in the 50-59 Category 1 (expert) division of the Texas XC Mountain Bike Championship series.

On the road bike side, 51-year-old Shannon MD Jim Slauson posted the fastest time of the year thus far during the road bike time trial series by completing the 12-mile Susan Peak TT course in a time of 31:02 (23.2 miles/hour average speed). Slauson also recently finished second overall in his category in the three-stage Fort Davis Hammerfest event, which is arguably the most difficult state race in Texas.

The ladies are also turning in some good bike performances. Shannon nurse and Team RWB member Dara Jones has posted the fastest time so far this year in the road TT event finishing the very windy race in a time of 38:39.

Summer Bewick, who races for the San Angelo High School Mountain Bike team, currently holds the lead in the women’s division of the mountain bike time trial series with a time of 29:26. Bewick was the 2103 JV champion in the Texas High School Mountain Bike series and recently placed 4th in the varsity girls division during the 2014 high school series.

Remember - San Angelo is home to some very good endurance athletes.

Upcoming Events

May 15: Mountain bike time trial series, angelobike.org
May 16: Relay for Life, relayforlife.org
May 16: Relay for Life 5K, roadlizards.org
June 5: Road bike time trial series, angelobike.org
June 7: Run in the Sun 8K, roadlizards.org
June 14: Tour de Burma, http://angelobike.org/tour-de-burma/
June 21: Stop, Drop and Roll, roadlizards.org

San Angelo Needs A Bike Park

San Angelo needs a bike park, and the first step toward meeting that need is to identify possible locations.

Our community has over 375 acres of developed park space that includes a municipal golf course, a skate park, an international water lily collection, 25 playgrounds, 25 sports practice fields, 27 picnic areas, a multimillion dollar baseball park, lake parks, and there’s talk of building a dog park in the near future.

Unfortunately, none of these areas realistically meet the requirements for a bike park area (more on those requirements later).

Some people will argue that we have a state park with miles of multi use trails and also the Twin Buttes open space with both trails and 4WD roads, but we still need an in-town bike park and here’s why.

The most successful cycling event in San Angelo in recent years has been the weekly cyclocross series that took place on a small tract of vacant Angelo State University property adjacent to Johnson Street and the ASU softball fields.

For the past several years, cyclists of all ages and abilities have turned out for each cyclocross series race with family and friends coming out to watch and cheer on competitors.

More importantly, these trails through the vacant ASU-owned land have become a go-to location for many area cyclists as they participate in off-road bike workouts, beginner rides, and “how to” clinics.

Although the state park and Twin Buttes areas offer miles and miles of trails, the in-town “bike park” area on the university campus has proved to be a safer and more convenient location for cycling activities where individuals feel comfortable riding alone and where kids could be turned loose to “pedal away.”

The ASU trails (and associated cyclocross series) were developed by former staff of Angelo State’s fitness and wellness program with the intent being to provide a safe and fun location for on-campus cycling, walking, and trail running activities.

However, the bike trails on campus have some serious limitations such as extensive mesquite thorn infestation, minimal trail maintenance, very little up-down elevation change, lack of public restrooms and awkward restrictions regarding public use for organized cycling activities and events.

As noted earlier, we need an in-town bike park where individuals and families can ride safely and where cycling-related events take place.

The city of Boulder, Colo., faced this same issue a few years ago. Even though the region surrounding Boulder has some of the best mountain biking and hiking trails in the nation, a group of forward-thinking cyclists led by mountain bike hall of fame member Pete Webber worked with Boulder’s Parks Department to develop a vision plan for a municipal bike park that would provide a safe, accessible riding experience for Boulder residents.

The outcome of this vision plan was the development of Boulder’s Valmont Bike park (http://bouldermountainbike.org/valmontbikepark), a 40 acre multi use facility completed in 2010 that includes a terrain area for mountain and BMX bikes, a cyclocross course, a network of single track trails, a learning loop, and a Tot Track for tricycles and strider bikes.

Since opening in 2010, ValmontPark has become a favorite cycling location for Boulder-area residents with an average of 250 users per day on weekdays and over 500 on weekends (or more when an organized event takes place).

As one Valmont Park user noted, “Bike parks are what skate parks were 15 years ago. Now, the big thing is creating dirt spaces for much larger tires.”

Boulder’s bike park is used for cycling clinics, workout groups, family rides, races, and — in January of this year — was the host venue for the Cyclocross National Championships that brought almost 2,000 racers, thousands of spectators, and $1.5 million in direct tourist spending to Boulder for the five-day championship event.

So, what would be the requirements be for a San Angelo bike park location?

Ideally, the park would be located on 25 to 35 acres of open land, be on rolling terrain that has at least 75-100 feet of elevation gain and be easily accessible both by motor vehicle and by bicycle.

Grass, landscaping, the associated water usage, and hard-surface paths would not be needed. Construction costs would be minimal — just bulldoze all but a few mesquite trees, clear a winding loop of 8-10 foot wide dirt trails, grade a dirt parking area, and add a few contoured features such as berms and dirt jumps.

Restroom facilities could be initially be portable toilets, and park users would have to bring their own water until funding allowed a drinking water fountain to be installed.

Trail design and ongoing maintenance would done by volunteers from the cycling community, and a portion of the revenues from organized events would go into a bike park maintenance fund.

All that’s needed is a good location for the park and the support of the city and local cycling groups to develop a bike park plan and then implement it.

Some promising areas that might fit the requirements include 25 acres of city-owned property located east of College Hills and north of Valleyview Blvd, some vacant airport land adjacent to Stewart Lane across from the airport baseball fields and an area of undeveloped city property east of the Texas Bank sports complex.

The “Blooming Weeds” open space and adjacent hillside on Gun Club Road across from the KOA also has potential, and it might be possible to include a bike park in the area of the eventually-to-be-built Red Arroyo trail.

There are obviously other in-town locations that might work, so if you have any ideas please let me know.  Remember - San Angelo needs a municipal bike park.


Upcoming Events

May 15: Mountain bike time trial, angelobike.org
May 16: Relay for Life, relayforlife.org
May 16: Relay for Life 5K, roadlizards.org
June 7: Run in the Sun 8K, roadlizards.org
June 21: Stop, Drop, and Roll, roadlizards.org

Spin classes for serious cyclists

Some people are reluctant to do outdoor cycling workouts because of traffic, wind, changing weather conditions, rough roads, the potential for flat tires, and the cost of a bike and associated gear such as a helmet, pump and cycling shoes.

Those are all valid issues, and — for many people — doing bike workouts indoors as part of a spin class may be the perfect way to get some fun low-impact cardio exercise in a motivating group environment.

The question that often comes up from cyclists who normally ride outdoors on roads or trails is “will indoor spin classes help improve my cycling fitness and skills?”

The answer is probably yes — and maybe no.

Indoor spin classes or workouts on an indoor stationary bike at home are not the same as doing rides outdoors on a road or mountain bike.

If your goal is to train for activities such as cycling tours, races or triathlons, then you need to do a significant percentage of your workouts outdoors on a real bike to develop overall cycling skills.

Conversely, if spin bikes or indoor trainers are used properly, they can be a fun and effective way to supplement the outdoor workouts and will help improve your cycling fitness.

Unlike a road or mountain bike being ridden outdoors, spin bikes are rigid metal frames that don’t move underneath you in response to road or trail conditions, wind and shifts in body position.

You don’t go up and down hills, swerve to miss potholes, practice riding in a group, and — most importantly — you don’t have the same ‘feel’ as on a real bike.

Christina McBride, an experienced triathlete, mountain bike racer, personal trainer and spin class instructor, explained that spin classes work well for intense cardio workouts and also for the easy ‘recovery ride’ days.

“The key is to use perceived exertion or heart rate to ensure that you’re working hard enough to get the desired training effect,” said McBride. “If you simply pedal the bike fast at an easy resistance setting you may log a lot of virtual miles but you won’t be stimulating the body as needed to get significant improvements in real cycling fitness.”

“By setting the spin bike resistance to a level that emulates real outdoor cycling and then using an HR monitor to make sure you are working in the desired HR zone, you can do indoor workouts that will improve overall cycling fitness.”

“Serious cyclists may also want to find a spin class instructor who is also an experienced cyclist, understands HR zone training, and know how to use a spin bike in a manner that emulates outdoor cycling.”

One way to maximize the effectiveness of short 45-60 minute indoor cycling workouts is to do intervals in heart rate zone 3 (tempo), zone 4 (lactate threshold) and zone 5 (VO2 max). If you’re not familiar with heart rate zones, visit cptips.com/hrmntr.htm for a comprehensive explanation.

McBride also suggests using spin classes for the days when you need an easy ‘recovery’ ride following a hard bike workout or running session.

“For the easy days, simply set a very low resistance level, spin the pedals to work the kinks out of sore muscles, and enjoy the camaraderie of the group, “ says McBride. “One great recovery workout is to do an easy spin class followed by a short yoga session.”

Almost all top cyclists (including professional athletes) do some of their workouts indoors on a stationary bike trainer or at times in a spin class. In fact, the spin bike was
developed back in the early 1990s by American cyclist Johnny Goldberg, an endurance cyclist who competed in cross-country and ultramarathon races.

So what’s the bottom line on including spin classes as part of your overall cycling training program?

If done properly, spin classes and related workouts that take place indoors using stationary trainers and videos such as Spinervals (spinervals.com), can help you become a more fit cyclist, but you’ll still need to venture outdoors on a real bike to develop overall cycling skills.

Rremember — spin classes are a good way to supplement your outdoor cycling workouts.

Upcoming Events

May 1: Road bike time trial, angelobike.org
May 15: Mountain bike time trial, angelobike.org
May 16: Relay for Life, relayforlife.org
May 16: Relay for Life 5K, roadlizards.org
June 7: Run in the Sun 8K, roadlizards.org

Mud Run Triathlon

Water levels in San Angelo area lakes and rivers are dropping fast, leaving dry shorelines and mud flats where there used to be water.

The annual drag boat races have been postponed this year due to the low water level in Lake Nasworthy.

Mud flats are starting to appear in the Middle Concho Park inlet of the lake that for years has been
the swim course for the Wool Capitol Triathlon.

However, there’s a silver lining in every non-rain-producing cloud. The shrinking lakes and residual mud could provide a once-in-a-drought opportunity for a new type of event.

Given the growing popularity of ‘mud run’ obstacle courses and short course sprint distance triathlons, I propose that we leverage the emerging mud flats to combine a mud run with a sprint triathlon and hold the first ever Mud Run Triathlon right here in San Angelo.

The format would be similar to a normal triathlon with three distinct ‘legs’ that solo competitors and three-person teams must complete.

Instead of beginning the triathlon with a swim, Leg 1 of the Mud Run Triathlon would be a 400-yard slog through a section of shallow water and mud with several ‘get down and crawl’ obstacles along the route.

The second leg would be on the bike just as in a normal triathlon, but the ‘mud athletes’ would face a course that’s reminiscent of a muddy cyclocross race.

Competitors would complete 6 challenging miles during the bike leg that included several obstacles plus (you guessed it) a section or two where they had to pedal through some of our high-quality Lake Nasworthy mud.

To ensure that the event is spectator-friendly, the bike course would follow a serpentine route close to where the water used to be that lets spectators see all of the action as racers complete each lap on their muddy bikes.

After completing the mud crawl and bike leg, racers would face a final 2-mile run leg that finished by going back through (in reverse direction) the same 400-yard shallow water, mud and crawl-through section they faced at the beginning of the race.

Spectators at the Mud Run Triathlon would enjoy the event as much or more than the racers, with multiple locations on the course designated as ‘heckle zones’ where spectators would offer encouragement while commenting loudly on each racer’s skills (or the lack of).

Loudspeakers around the course would blare music such “Mud Bog” by Matt Steel and “Muddin 4x4” by Dale Rogers.

Just as at the drag boat races, spectators would be encouraged to bring large coolers filled with fermented beverages to ensure they stayed well hydrated and to help them get into proper enjoy-the-race mode.

Kids would also be able to join in on the fun — they would be recruited to help create the mud-on-white cotton T-shirts awarded to each event finisher.

Top finishers in the race would receive one-of-a-kind Mud Run Triathlon awards. Art students would be commissioned to create unique mud sculpture trophies for the top female, male and team category winners and also mud medals for first, second and third in each age group.

Holding the first-ever Mud Run Triathlon would be better than lamenting the fact that our lakes are disappearing and maybe even be something that could attract out-of-town mud-seeking visitors to our almost-waterless city.

The only potential problem might be if heavy rains fell before the mud run triathlon took place and raised the lake’s water level back to normal, thus covering up those beautiful mud flats.

We all hope that big rain happens — we’ll be glad to postpone the Mud Run Triathlon until the next severe drought.

Remember — a mud-run triathlon could be some dirty fun.

Upcoming Events

April 24: Mountain bike TT Series, angelobike.org
April 26: Lone Wolf Run, roadlizards.org
April 26: Colorado River Bikefest, ballingernoonlions.org
May 1: R oad bike time trial, angelobike.org
May 15: Mountain bike time trial, angelobike.org
May 16: Relay for Life, relayforlife.org
May 16: Relay for Life 5K, roadlizards.org
June 7: Run in the Sun 8K, roadlizards.org

Bike, Run, and Yoga

Strength and endurance are things that all cyclists and runners strive to improve.

We do long bike rides over hilly terrain, log mile after mile running, and supplement those workouts with additional strength training sessions in the gym.

You would assume that all of this strengthens every muscle fiber in out body, but ... that’s not the case.

Supporting muscles in the back, core and upper body are often underdeveloped in endurance athletes, and — even worse — the cycling and running workouts themselves may result in chronic pain or injuries resulting from tight hip flexor muscles, inflexible hamstrings and hyperextension in the lower back.

Patty Browning, a San Angelo yoga instructor and former Army drill instructor, suggests that yoga sessions can help alleviate these problems and even help improve your functional strength and endurance.

“Athletes should attempt to diversify their training to avoid overworking the same major muscle groups or ignoring stabilizing muscles like those in the ankles, hips and groin,” says Browning.”

Adding a regular yoga practice to an athlete’s training regimen may increase athletic gains.”

“The stretching and breathing of a mindful yoga practice elongates shortened, contracted muscle tissue which increases the muscle’s range of motion. Yoga helps lengthen muscle fibers by focusing on the entire range of motion.”

“It is the eccentric portion of the muscle movement (lengthening against resistance) that stimulates the greatest muscle growth and increases strength. Additionally, the increased flexibility gained from yoga sessions may also help prevent more serious injuries when riders and runners experience falls.”

Browning also notes that yoga practitioners learn to be mindful (acutely aware) of their various body systems through asana (physical postures) and pranayama (breath control) practice.

Although yoga sessions can vary from relaxing restorative workouts to harder flexibility and strength efforts, Browning says that most of them follow a common pattern.

“We begin with a quieting of the mind through deep breathing, then perform movements that warm up the spine and joints slowly and deliberately,” she said.

 “After the warm up, we begin to raise the heart rate and generating heat in the muscles through a series of standing postures linked by the breath (Sun Salutations) and then progress through all or some of the following poses: standing, balancing, core-centric, arm-balances, seated postures, twists, backbends, inversions, reclined postures, cool down and savasana (corpse pose) at the conclusion of the session.”

One common question from athletes is how and when to fit yoga sessions into a busy week that might include cycling, running and strength workouts.

“Yoga can be tacked onto any of the days mentioned above,” says Browning. “It is a very good active recovery exercise and as little as 15-30 minutes following a workout session can prove very beneficial to the athlete. However, yoga should not be performed before a hard activity where power/strength is required.”

In addition to the yoga classes that Browning teaches professionally, she also conducts twice-weekly free yoga sessions for the San Angelo Team Red WhiteBlue chapter. Those yoga sessions are open to the public.

The locations and times for her classes are posted on her website at anjaliyoganow.com or you can visit the San Angelo Team RWB Facebook page at facebook.com/groups/TeamRWBSanAngelo.

Want to know more about yoga and the potential benefits for you? Check out the links below or attend one of the free Team RWB yoga sessions for a “test run”.

• Yoga for cyclists — http://home.trainingpeaks.com/blog/article/yoga-for-cyclists

• Yoga for runners — runnersworld.com/tag/yoga

• A short 10-minute yoga for athletes video — prana.com/life/2013/07/18/sage-rountree-yoga-for-cyclists/

Remember — yoga may be the missing piece of your workout routine.

 Upcoming Events

April 12: Moon Pie night trail run, roadlizards.org
April 13: 9-mile mountain bike time trial, angelobike.org/events/mtb-time-trial-9-mile/
April 24: Mountain bike TT Series, angelobike.org
April 26: Lone Wolf Run, roadlizards.org
April 26: Colorado River Bikefest, ballingernoonlions.org
May 16: Relay for Life, relayforlife.org

Social vs. Solo Workouts

I occasionally coach individuals or groups for cycling-related events, and one of the workout issues that always comes up is social vs. solo workouts.

Many people, especially individuals new to a sport, seem to prefer social group workouts.

This may be a residual philosophy from high school and collegiate sports or from military training where most workouts were group-based team activities.

Whatever the reason, individuals who want to excel in sports such as cycling, running or triathlon should do some of their workouts solo unless they have training partners who match up perfectly in terms of ability, goals, time availability and similar factors.

Note that I said “want to excel” is one of the reasons for doing some workouts solo. This may not apply to everyone because — for may people — excelling in competition isn’t the reason for working out.

Some people view workouts as simply social activities where the primary objective is to enjoy other people’s company with the quality of the workout being secondary.

Conversely, individuals who do compete seriously tend to be goal-oriented and thus their workouts are planned strategies (tasks) designed to achieve specific fitness and competition goals. Social interactions during workouts are usually secondary to completing the planned workout for these individuals.

Research such as that done by Hardy, Eys and Carron (2005) reinforces this concept. Their study suggested that “an overemphasis on social interaction (i.e., non-task related) may detract from the goals of many exercisers and, in the end, lower their attraction to the group.”

So why is solo vs. social important?

The biggest problem with social group workouts is that the group will usually dictate the duration and intensity of a workout.

A long ride planned by one individual may get shortened because some members of the group have time constraints, or the pace of a workout may be dictated by the slowest person in the group.

There is also the important issue of being able to ‘push yourself’ during difficult workouts since you’ll have to do that during races. Doing hard solo efforts helps you develop mental toughness to ride hard when you are hurting.

Although the camaraderie of a group exercise session is healthy in a mental sense, the above-mentioned issues may result in less-than-stellar physical outcomes for people pursuing specific race-training goals.

The good news is that with a little planning you can have the best of both worlds.

An effective way to approach the social vs. solo workout issue is to categorize workouts based on if they are best done solo, with a group, or if it doesn’t matter.

Using as an example a typical week from a training plan that I’m currently developing for a group, you can see how solo vs. social applies to different workouts during the week.

 - Endurance ride in heart rate (HR) zone 2: This workout can be done solo or with a group as long as the group’s pace and ride duration don’t deviate a lot from what your planned endurance workout is.  The only caveat is 'don't let the group pace make you ride faster than planned.'

 - Recovery day with an easy walk or yoga: Prefect for socializing so hook up with other people and enjoy.

 - Bike strength workout: Although it could be done in a group environment, this is a good solo workout that both stresses the muscles and helps you practice mental toughness skills as you do ‘big gear’ intervals on the stationary bike trainer.

 - 30-minute trail run at a conversational pace: Solo or with a group, as long as the group members run at about the same pace.

 - Fast-tempo ride in HR zone 3 with several hard two-minute accelerations during the workout: This workout is best done solo to ensure that you stay in the planned HR zone during the ride. It could be done with a group, but you’ll often find that the group is going too easy or two hard for you to do the HR-specific workout as planned.

Remember — you don't always have to be social since some workouts are best done solo.


Upcoming Events

April 10: Road bike TT Series, angelobike.org
April 12: Moon Pie night trail run, roadlizards.org
April 24: Mountain bike TT Series, angelobike.org
April 26: Lone Wolf Run, roadlizards.org
April 26: Colorado River Bikefest, ballingernoonlions.org
May 16: Relay for Life, relayforlife.org