Set out your stall and be guided by people who know what they are doing. Don’t waste your time on training that is going nowhere or is simply too slow.
Over the last week or so we’ve run a series of coaching articles by A1 Coaching. The emphasis has been on establishing the basics about your own level of fitness and applying your current condition to short focused training sessions to improve quickly.
This coaching series is the one commercial project we do on stickybottle each year.
We agreed to team up with A1 Coaching because we feel they talk our language; setting out practical training for real people.
The most attractive feature for us is that they offer ongoing support at a very reasonable annual fee and all based on a modest and manageable number of hours training per week.
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Anthony Walsh is the public face of the company, but he’s backed by a great team of coaches and experts in areas from nutrition, to strength and conditioning.
We feel whatever your goals are – to race, ride sportives or simply get better at cycling with no specific events in mind – you’ll benefit greatly if you take your lead from how they approach training.
If you commit to being guided by A1 Coaching, it will also teach you how to train properly; a lesson that should stay with you and benefit you for the rest of your cycling days.
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The short but focussed rides they encourage can, of course, be mixed with your longer group spins at the weekends. There’s no need to give up the craic of the local chaingang or your club.
But by learning how to focus and train at structured intensities, you will improve more over a shorter period of time.
And A2 Coaching work off plans based on seven or eight hours training per week; the kind of commitment most of us would be able to make and sustain.
A1 Coaching is now offering membership, at a reduced price, for the next two weeks.
There is an annual once-off fee of €97 and you can get further information and sign up by following this link.
You can also trial what they are offering for a nominal €1 for two weeks, and pay €19.99 per month thereafter.
What’s on offer, 12-months
- Training plans: Day by day sessions with instructions and videos to follow so you can be sure you are following the programme correctly.
- Bonus modules: Dealing with sport-life balance and setting goals and achieving goals.
- Members only training group: You’ll be granted access to their members only Facebook page – or their apps for iPhone and Android - which will allow you to keep in constant contact and have questions answered as they arise.
- Race tactics: If you’re racing this year, or even thinking about, it’s always good to bounce the basics of people who have done it all before – and are still doing it at the highest domestic level.
- Zones and tracking improvements: Coaching you to firstly identify your key heart rate or power training zones and devising a tailored training programme to suit. And showing you how to measure if you’re improving.
- Season planning: Training programs aimed at base training periods, build periods and peak form periods.
- Step-by-Step Video Guides – Information-packed videos showing you every aspect of the system; from setting your functional threshold heart rate, to how to ride effective intervals, how to plan your season, how to do power profiling and much more
- Strength modules: A conditioning programme develops a platform for strength, power and speed.
- Diet and Nutrition: Diet planners, shopping guides and cycling-specific cook books with over 100 unique recipes.
To find out more, follow this link.
