Training vs Practice
"Are you practicing for the right exam?" is a great metaphorical question golf coach Peter Arnott poses to his athletes in an effort to widen their view on the elements needed in top level golf performance.
"Eh... Golf... I came here for cycling... where is this going?"
Golf and road cycling are obviously quite different sports, all sport shares the same fundamental challenges of executing a performance under pressure. But they are also similar in that there is a lot of data and measurement in both sports. In golf there is a tendency towards emphasis on the perfect swing and in cycling we put the vast majority of our efforts into finding more strength or specifically watts through our physical training on the bike and in the gym. For good reason a massive chunk of the performance pie in cycling is basically how much power you can produce and for how long.
But, if you have ever been dropped in a cross wind, lost time on a descent, been caught in a split, unable to get near the front when it matters, been bullied around in the bunch, found yourself consistently crashing or just feeling underprepared and anxious about those things when they present in a race. Then, you know how horrible it is to lack those skills and knowledge and how it can affect the outcome of your performance.
So how can we ace the "achieving your best performance in cycling competition" exam and not just the section on FTP?
This is where in my opinion a mindset shift to "practice" rather than just "training" comes in. Training in the sense of our training peaks programs, structured, systematic, hit this power for this amount of time vs practice which is seeing the structure as a constraint we can use to force skill learning.
Everything can be broken down into a skill. For example:
To practice pacing, take power and HR off your screen and try the efforts blind. You might not complete the interval exactly as prescribed, but you will ultimately learn more from doing this from time to time than putting your trainer in erg mode and just pedalling.
Use hill reps as an opportunity to intentional focus on your descending skills.
Bunch rides are excellent for working on keeping your movements small and predictable. Which will give you a foundation for holding good position in a bunch race more effectively.
Group rides also offer the chance, when appropriate, to try things you wouldn't normally do. If you are a sprinter, try to break away or attack the climb. If you are a diesel, wait for the town sign sprint. Getting in reps of different scenarios, building your play book so you have more tools and tactics to work with in the races.
Essentially this is a mindset of play. Something that younger riders tend to have built in that gets hammered out of us as we get older.
We have to remember that riding a bike is a complex skill, multiplied by 100 in competition. The environment and people within the race provide infinite unpredictability. While being systematic and structured feels comforting it can lead us to miss out on learning, especially in areas that we already perceive as a weakness. Adding some level of play to our sessions is the key to acquiring a wide range of tools for all the unique challenges competition can present.