# cycling psychology



## numminummi (Oct 18, 2010)

Hi! I've just read the book 'with winning in mind'. It did have a lot of good aspects to use for cycling, but did not seem to cover how to overcome pain for longer periods (TT). Do you have any recommendations for books/articles on that?


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## bradXism (May 10, 2011)

No books but I have been doing this for 35 years and pick off alot of younger guys who can drop me in group hammer rides on this philosophy alone. For me it depends how much pain I am dealing with for how long. Road racing,, has more pain involved. chasing or hanging on to a break is much more pain. In a time trial I live and die by a heart rate monitor. Figuring out my threshholds for amounts of time was fairly easy to determine. I have terms for it that are probably different than most books. There is my yellow line, where I can maintain it for an extended amount of time. This is about 15-20 beats a min below what I term 'pop' point. I can mess with my yellow line and go up to my red line and recover slowly. Doing that is pretty uncomfortable. This would be where I would be in a TT. I am an old man now so my yellow line is around 145. If i choose to muscle up a hill or get overly enthused I can jump it up to my red line about 155. At this level I am def uncomfortable and can only hold it for a couple of mins before my body shuts down and I have to recover. Those 3-5 of mins seem very long. This is the level is where I can mess with the pain. Holding that effort and letting my rate slowly recover to 145-150. If the event or TT is longer, say over an hour I will have to let it drop to 145, but will take several mins to do. Leg burn I can tolerate but optimally I don't want much burn. especially early in the event. If I do my speed will soon drop. 
Above my red zone is my pop. this is 160. This is painful and if I don't back off within 30-45 seconds my body will do it for me. Messing with the discomfort is the bursts and when I put them on. I don't jack my heart rate up an incline but over it. Dropping a gear or 2 and keep on stomping till I can feel the decline start to take the pressure off, I do not back off as many a newbie will instinctively do and slowly recover on the decline making sure not to drop below my 145-150. Practicing this you will notice you are putting much more effort on the downs than you will in a group ride or road race where most rider recover below their yellow zone only to jack it back up when the decline stop. This is where inexperienced ridier will start to yo-yo their effort where their rate goes up and down. Here is also where you are going to put some real estate on people. 5-10 mins from the end put your head down and put it up there with the last couple of mins knowing you are going to burst there, is no recovery until you fall off your bike after the finish. This is painful and as I stated above I can't hold it very long. My legs a going to burn,
The end is where I think of myself as a mean nasty ***** and the loud braggards I encountered, or knew at the start. There seems to be more than I encounter in running and nordic skiing. (Something about having the high end equipment that makes them think they arrived) I imagine them behind me and I making them suffer. I developed an attitude from a track career, "Man I hurt..he must be dying"
I hope this helps. I have no Idea what books would say and this is just an opinunated short story. Ii am sure you are going to here many more.


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