Sean Kelly has said cyclists can still train both indoors and outdoors and could also try running during the current lock-down period.
However, while
the 1988 Vuelta winner and former world number one rider has urged cyclists to
try running for training, they should approach it very cautiously.
Kelly himself says he is keeping fit in lock-down; sticking to a short off-road loop close to home for his cycling and doing some running.
He says those
cyclists who need to top-up lower intensity general fitness training with
higher intensity efforts can added in the turbo trainer.
But he believes cyclists can train outside, once they are staying within 2km of home, despite the lock-down and can use that limited opportunity to keep themselves ticking over.
While Kelly said he is not training to race, he is still in great condition; maintaining his fitness even when on long Eurosport commentating trips abroad and also leading SportActive cycling holidays in Mallorca.
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“First of all, we obviously don’t know when racing or sportives will be on again,” he told
stickybottle of the difficulty in trying to assess training requirements at
present.
“The UCI
has said racing won’t start until after June 1st, and that’s depending on how this crisis goes across Europe
and all over the world really.
“And with the sportive events it will be the same
situation. But if you’re preparing for
sportives it’s much easier than for riders who are preparing for racing.
With sportives, you could go to an event in August or September and you can
ride a bit slower.
“You’ll know you haven’t as much training done as you
normally would so you can say to yourself ‘I’ll just go out there and enjoy
this event’. So you have that choice, but with racing it’s a different scenario
of course.”
Kelly’s overall message is straightforward: make the best of the opportunities you still have and “just keep riding your bike.”
“You can ride close to your home when you can; do laps. So you can do some of that
and then do the more intensive stuff on the turbo trainer; on Zwift and so on.
“But even on a basic turbo trainer you can do a lot if you do a few sessions a week; you can get that really high intensity training done.”
Kelly said he has not touched the home trainer of late
himself, but pointed out he only had to train for general fitness rather than
for racing.
“I’ve been getting out on my mountain bike,” he said. “I have a circuit close to home with is about 2.7km and that is within that 2km (radius) of my house.
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"So I’ve been riding around that and I’ve ridden the mountain bike for two hours around that.
“And then I do a small bit of running as well. I always
do a bit of running anyway when I am away on the Tour de France, when I don’t
have my bike. So I’ve just upped my running a bit more now since Paris-Nice.
“I did a bit of running at Paris-Nice and before that I was running during the winter fairly regularly; getting out at least one a week.
"And really that’s enough to keep my fitness up. But of course my fitness is much different to what people who are racing would need.”
Kelly added the furthest he had run was 13km, which would
normally take him just over an hour.
“I’d run in a wooded area on a pathway, it’s heavy enough
going and it’s up and down terrain. I’d run at a slow enough pace, I don’t
really push it at all.
“I would be concerned about getting injuries so for me
the running is just about getting out there and doing that hour or hour and ten
minutes and at times I might only do 45 to 50 minutes.”
While the
Covid19 crisis may be a good time for cyclists to branch out and try some running for fitness, Kelly
urged cyclists to take a very cautious approach.
“It could be a good time to start but I’d be surprised if any of the cyclists who race
haven’t already done some running,” he
said.
“Maybe
people who have focused more on leisure
cycling a bit more and those who have taken up the bike in the past few years;
maybe a lot of that group hasn’t been running at all.
“So I think with any group of cyclists, you’ll get quite
a number who have experience at some kind of running.”
However, he said “a big danger” for cyclists who start
running is transferring their general fitness from the bike, which can be very
high, into a running effort and causing injury.
“I’ve had it in the past, maybe 15 years ago or more; I’d
be biking and then I’d go away on the Tour de France and start running and have
good fitness from the bike but then you start running too quickly or too far
and then you get injuries.
“Cyclists, you know, we think we’re unbreakable; you
going to the physio and they tell you the same thing, that the cyclists come to
them are doing too much running too quickly.
“You have to start off and do 15 or 20 minutes and then
walk a bit, especially if you haven’t been running for months or even years.
You need to run a bit and walk a bit and then build it up gradually.”
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