Cycling Adventures: Navigating the Path to Elite Racing While Maintaining Fun and Social Connections
My new coaching client, Jamie Zarda, like many older female cyclists, is stuck in the middle.
Jamie, 44, started racing just a few years ago and has made a lot of progress in both mountain biking and cyclocross since then, upgrading to the Cat. 1 on the trails and Cat. 3 in cyclocross.
But she usually races against much younger women, and, while she’s seen some success, she tends to be at the back of the elite field.
Jamie knows how to race hard, now we learn training to get fast
Jamie and I started working together in June 2023, and since she is, in many ways, typical of many female masters’ racers, I thought I would share our long-term plan for her development as a cyclist and person.
Coaching, for me, is not just sending Jamie a training plan every week.
Coaching is all about supporting her to become a well-rounded person who excels at racing her bike(s)!
And since she just started to race seriously, we have some work to do to channel her energy, broaden her fitness and strength base, and learn the discipline that comes with racing at the front of the field.
Goal: Get faster in elite women’s fields
Jamie started racing mountain bikes in 2016 in the Wisconsin Off-Road Series (WORS) when her kids, now teenagers, got into racing.
She eventually moved up to the Pro/ Cat. 1 elite level, which is her current challenge as she usually is the oldest rider and tends to be at the back of the field.
She also races cyclocross, doing her first race in 2021 in Milwaukee. She now races as a Cat. 3 in cross
The long mountain bike and gravel races, like Iceman Cometh, also tend to favor Jamie’s skills and typically have larger age-group fields.
Plus she also rides her fat bike all winter in all sorts of races.
So she’s on a bike pretty much all year!
Her goals are pretty simple: Get faster to compete against the younger women and then excel at the bigger races with larger age-group fields.
We’ll need to periodize her training year to make sure she’s fit and fresh for her A races and use the others as good training days!
Three main training goals for Jamie for cycling adventures
We have three main training goals: Building strength, adding Zone 2 endurance rides, and building mental focus.
As a woman in her mid-40s, Jamie needs to be doing some heavy strength training for several reasons.
One, she rides her bike a lot, especially on trails, and she needs full-body strength to manage both the style of riding she does and the training load.
Second, as a woman in her mid-40s, her hormones are changing.
In order to stimulate testosterone, she needs to lift heavy so she can build and maintain lean muscle.
She will also need to find the time to do some active recovery, like recovery yoga.
Strength training is a critical element to get faster
Our plan is to start with basic strength training to improve her back and butt strength along with a lot of core work.
We started with movements like chair pose, hip bridges, and superheroes to fire up her back and glute muscles along with side movements to stimulate her gluteus medius and minimus.
We’ll add in the heavy lifting with Sumo Deadlifts when her movement patterns are dialed in.
Many older people who run and ride a lot do deadlifts and squats by leading with their knees rather than sitting back.
She’ll do regular core work like planks, side planks, and Windmills as well.
Right now, as we get going in her program, she’s scheduled for twice-a-week strength sessions.
We’ll also include some yoga strength movements!
Jamie needs to go slow in order to go fast
The second focus is endurance training.
Jamie tends to do a lot of moderately intense training, mostly because she loves to ride her mountain bike.
Mountain biking tends to be either crushing it uphill or cruising downhill.
So we’re working on building more endurance through long, easy rides at her first ventilatory threshold.
She is continuing to work to find that first threshold by practicing breathing through her nose while doing the endurance rides.
Jamie has a lot of energy, and she loves to ride hard with friends.
It’s a challenge for her to go slow.
So I’m working on finding ways for her to still be social and get in two to three-hour zone 2 endurance rides!
My task is to make those rides as fun as possible so she enjoys them and does more of them!
Endurance rides build base of aerobic fitness
The reason for the endurance rides is simple, yet challenging.
If Jamie only does the moderately intense or sort of hard riding, she will never have enough energy to really go hard in her intervals.
She will be able to make way more progress if she slows down for most of her rides, then crushes her intervals.
That way, she will teach her body to be faster when the young riders try to get away.
If she only rides at the moderate intensity, she won’t get any faster.
Doing a lot of zone 2 rides builds a base of mitochondria in her cells, teaches her body to utilize fat as a fuel source, and builds up a minimal amount of training stress.
Moderate and sort of hard rides create a ton of stress with minimal extra gains.
High energy can bring growth mindset!
The final focus has everything to do with Jamie energy!
While we haven’t been working together long, I can tell that she has a mind that processes rapidly and needs to be stimulated.
So there is a ton of nervous energy that we will need to harness, reframe into excited energy, and pour it back into the bike.
Obviously, this is a mindset that is going to be a challenge to change.
But Jamie is a determined woman, so I’m excited to see how this plays out.
Motivational interviewing to help start process
We’re going to start with some motivational interviewing to get after why she rides her bike.
I suspect there are several underlying reasons but one of them is getting to ride with and keep up with her boys!
Once we break down her motivation, we’ll set goals that are based on daily accomplishments.
That means we’re going to focus on each workout, each day as an opportunity to practice focus and mental clarity as well as practice with fueling.
We’ll practice the nose breathing, for example, to become more aware of her body’s reaction to stress.
We’ll practice visualization at the start of races, and we’ll create some checklists to help focus her energy.
No one is “uncoachable”
Jamie has told me several times that she worries she’s “uncoachable.”
However, I’ve never seen anyone who meets that description!
Jamie just has a ton of energy and needs to ride with others regardless of how fast they are.
She’s a very social person and a parent of two pretty fast boys.
So there are several small changes Jamie will need to make in her training to bring out her full potential.
I’m honored to be working with her, and honestly really excited to see what she is able to do!
Jamie’s three training goals:
- More strength training to build lean muscle mass and prevent injury.
- More Zone 2 endurance riding to build a base to go fast.
- Mental focus training to turn anxiety and nerves into a force of power!
Need more about cycling adventures?
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Paul Warloski is a:
- USA Cycling Level 3 Coach
- RRCA Running Coach
- Training Peaks Level 2 Coach
- RYT-200 Yoga Instructor
- Certified Personal Trainer
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