The Cyclists' Training Manual - Fitness and Skills
for every Rider: Guy Andrews and Simon Doughty. A & C Black 2007.
184 pages paperback. ISBN 978-0-7136-7741-6
ALTHOUGH IT WASN'T published until this
year, 2007, a skim through this manual suggests that it was completed
several years earlier. The general feel is of something the BCF might
have produced back in about 1998 when it tried to hijack coaching in
Britain, and developments in training methods, feeding and equipment
of the last few years haven't yet found their way in. The bizarre caption
to a picture of Lemond (retired 1995) advises that 'he is one of the
best wheels to follow and even the pros will take his wheel.' A training
manual shouldn't perhaps have too much on equipment, but the carbon
revolution seems to have passed the authors by, and there's little useful
advice about what kinds of materials to choose from.
For a first basic training manual it's not bad - most of the advice
is sound, but in seeking to avoid being too detailed and prescriptive
the authors may have strayed too far in the other direction and made
it too general.
Some of the advice runs counter to received wisdom, which is frequently
wrong: for instance, your TT bike may need a lower saddle position for
maximum power output, instead of higher, which is what most riders think.
Some advice seems outdated: do coaches frown on café stops on
long rides? Alcohol the night before a race is better avoided than merely
reduced; and cross-training won't do much for your specific sport. There's
a photo of a bad hamstring stretch, but only a description of the correct
version. And not every coach would agree without demur that stretching
is 'vital'. Some is plain wrong: we're told that cycling is a weight-bearing
activity - the opposite is the case; 500 metres is 1625 feet, not 310
feet.
Nutrition advice is adequate, but adding fructose has been shown to
increase CHO absorption from around 70 gm to over 120 gm per hour, significantly
altering race feeding arrangements.
The book is good on periodisation of training, how to ride in echelons,
RPE, and how to plan your training schedules. There are 15 or so detailed
ready-made schedules which riders can easily adapt for their own needs.
The matrices for skills, fitness, etc are excellent. The authors recommend
plenty of long slow distance training combined with intervals. Turbo
training is recommended but despite the huge variety of methods available,
only the standard pyramid is actually described. Six training zones
are used, and the use of the heart rate monitor is based on max heart
rate, a measurement many cyclists will find difficult to find. The formula
of 220 minus age for max heart rate isn't merely a 'rule of thumb' -
it's so misleading as to be worthless. A more useful datum for most
cyclists would be something like the average of your Average Heart Rate
in three 10-mile time-trials. Weights are recommended but no details
given.
The short section on finding and using a coach is excellent and was
clearly written by someone with firsthand knowledge.
There's an adequate index. Production is very glossy and in full colour,
and the tables are very good, clear and comprehensible. Otherwise there's
little here that can't be found in Jim Hendry's 1987 BCF Training Manual.
Ramin Minovi