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I Love Bicycling

I Love Bicycling is a website that is geared towards cycling for beginners with road cycling tips, training articles, nutrition tips, weight loss, how to’s and bike repair articles.

Reasons To Try Group Riding This Year

July 8, 2019 by Sarah Lauzé

Cycling on your own is great. You have complete freedom as to where you want to go, how fast you ride, and when to take breaks. However, group riding can be a great way to expand your cycling horizons in just about every way. The idea of showing up for a ride with a bunch of people you don’t know can be intimidating, but we promise it’ll be worth it. Here are some of the reasons you should try group riding this year.

Reasons to Try Group Riding

Camaraderie

There’s nothing like tapping into a group of new friends with similar interests to you. Most cycling clubs will have a variety of organized group rides depending on skill level, so you should be able to find one that suits you. You can also learn so much from other riders. Within a group of cyclists you’ll find years of experience and cycling knowledge available to you. From clothing to cycling techniques, your new comrades will most likely be able to help you up your game.

Find New Routes

It’s easy to get stuck in a rut as far as roads and routes go when you’re riding on your own. There are plenty of online resources that can help you start branching out into uncharted territory, but stopping at every intersection to navigate can become tiresome. When you go with a group, all you have to do is follow along as you’re guided through an awesome new route.

Training

Riding with a group is a great way to learn new useful road skills and etiquette, as well as up your training sessions. Some friendly competition or simply trying to keep up can be a great way to challenge yourself much more than you would if you were riding solo. It also gets you accustomed to riding within a group, and all that comes with it, so if you ever decide to give a race a try you’ll be prepared.

Motivation and Accountability

Nothing like accountability to get you out on a ride after a night out or when the weather isn’t the best. Being part of a group, getting know the other riders, and holding each other accountable can help you develop discipline. Even though you may start off a ride feeling unmotivated, 10 minutes into whizzing along and chatting with a friend you’ll forget all about it.

Group rides can be a great way to meet new people, as well as to gain fitness and experience on the bike. A quick online search can yield local rides and times, or you can head to your local bike shop. They will know where and when rides are as well as what type of ride they are. A mix of riding by yourself, with a few friends, and with a local group can allow you to get more enjoyment from cycling, as well as become a stronger rider.

The Dos and Don’ts Of Group Riding

September 18, 2015 by U.M.

The Dos and Don’ts Of Group RidingIf you plan on going for a group ride and you’re all brushed up on the group riding skills you’ll need, the next thing you’ll need to know about is the etiquette that will be expected of you while you ride. Most riders will expect you to know these things unless you are a brand new cyclist. That being said here’s the dos and don’ts of group riding.

The Golden Rule

Ride like the person you would like to be riding behind. This isn’t just about being kind and courteous. This is also about maintaining good skills such as how to drop back or move forward in a paceline. You’ll also want to maintain good safety precautions by warning others about debris on the road, sharp turns or any other sort of upcoming danger. Never assume that everyone sees what you can see. It’s good group riding etiquette to watch out for other riders and communicate it to them via hand signals or hand signals and verbal.

The Over Reactor

In a group there is always that guy… that guy that seems to overreact to each little situation. Someone stops pedaling in front of him and he slams on his brakes instead of stopping pedaling as well creating an unnecessarily large gap, then hammers back on the pedals again to catch up only to slow too much again. If you are that guy, stop it, if you see that guy in a group… make sure you are ahead of him as he will waste not only his energy but yours as well.

The Obnoxious Warm-Up Rider

During a group ride the first 10-15 minutes is for warm up. Don’t blast off the front and stretch the group out immediately. Nor should you pedal hard to the front then stop pedaling to drop to the pack just to blast back to the front. Calm down, take a position and if you need more effort to warm up properly try a higher cadence or standing up. Perhaps you can start a minute or two later than the group and catch up.

Similarly on a track, if you have a race, do not warm up on the track just before your race time. Many races have multiple events during the day and for all you know the stretch of track you’re warming up on is still an active race zone and you’ll likely be in someone’s way. If you need to get to know the track, the best time would be before the race is set up or early that day before the first event.

The Cut Off

When you go into the corner of a race, pick a line and stick with it. The last thing you want to be is that biker who cut off another and caused a crash. However, be aware that skilled racers can take on lines and work their way into spots that others will find difficult or even terrifying. Only do what you know you are skilled enough to do; the race itself is not the time to work on building your skills. That’s what training is for.

The Fast One

So you are the fast one, most of the group already knows, you don’t need to prove it every group ride. Don’t blast off the front and break the group up in the middle of the ride – no one likes a showoff. Try to keep the same pace the group was holding before you got a turn pulling on the front. Perhaps ride at the back of the pack with a nice gap so you don’t get any benefits of drafting so you still get your workout in.

The Late One

When you sign up for a group race either for fun or for a race, always be prepared. This means that you need to have your registration in days early and you need to have all the supplies you’ll need for the ride. If you’re going on a long ride don’t show up late without all the water, food, and other supplies you need. Plan ahead and leave early in case traffic gets in your way.

The Sudden Stopper

If you see something in the middle of the road never slam on your brakes unless it is life or death, you run the risk of causing other riders to crash. This is as much a safety concern as it is an etiquette problem. If you have time give a hand signal of “stopping” and yell stopping. If you don’t have time for a hand signal, have the decency to yell stopping as you are doing it. Try and slow down as slowly as you are able to give riders behind you time to react.

The Silent Swerver

Less heard of than the sudden stopper but equally as deadly the silent swerver sees an obstacle in the road, does not point it out and then at the last second swerves around it leaving the cyclist behind running right into the obstacle. Be kind and point out the obstacle well in advance, take a position to the left or to the right as early as possible so other cyclists are able to see what danger is coming.

The Uninvited Drafter

This doesn’t necessarily apply to racing but to riding in large groups of people that you may not know. In a more relaxed setting, you should never draft someone you don’t know without their permission. Not only is it rude but it can actually be a little creepy. If someone does this to you, remind them that it’s common biker courtesy to ask permission first.

The dos and don’ts of group riding are not that hard to follow. If you’re new to riding in groups let your fellow riders know so they won’t take offense to your mistakes. Most people will be glad to watch your back and help you learn the rules you need to know.

5 Tips To Increase Cycling Motivation

May 6, 2015 by Dyani Herrera

5 Tips To Increase Cycling Motivation

tips to increase cycling motivationAs much as we may love cycling, there may come a time when we lose motivation. We may struggle to reacquaint ourselves with that burning desire to ride at the crack of dawn. When we’ve hit this plateau in our training, there are a few ways to change the monotony of our routine. Here are five tips that will reignite the passion for cycling again!

Time of Day

Perhaps we’re losing motivation to ride because we’re too tired to wake up early in the morning due to overtraining or life’s general responsibilities. Although riding early in the morning does have its benefits, it doesn’t mean we are bound to riding as the sun rises. At times our bodies demand more sleep than usual and we need to listen. It’s helpful to change your ride times to late afternoons instead. By riding in the afternoon we have time to sleep in and get all our work done, rather than rushing to arrive to work on time post ride in the mornings. There’s also the added bonus of finishing your ride and watching the beautiful sunsets. The other advantage of a late afternoon ride is being able to de-stress after a long day’s work. Having something to look forward to at the end of the day, functions as a motivation to finish your responsibilities, and see cycling as your oasis rather than, “something you HAVE to do.”

Riding Partner/Group

If you’re someone who’s accustomed to riding alone and are beginning to find your sessions rather repetitive or lonely, it’s helpful to find a new riding partner. Riding with a partner who is highly motivated can be contagious as well as fun. Also, having someone who you can compete with when riding can not only push you to improve, but make you motivated to ride more. The same can happen when riding with a cycling group. In riding with a group you can take turns being the leader or drafting, both of which have benefits in increasing self-confidence when riding. Riding with a group is also a way to build camaraderie with others who are just as passionate about the sport as you are. Another advantage of group rides, is they usually have set times and days when they ride, forcing you to be held accountable!

New Route

Depending on where you live cycling routes may be limited, forcing you to use the same path constantly. However, in cities where cycling is highly supported there are several bike paths for cyclists throughout the city. Regardless of the circumstances, if you’ve been using the same route continuously it may kill your drive to go out and ride. At times it’s beneficial to stimulate the senses and choose an alternate route. It’s highly motivational when you’re seeing new sights, smelling different air (ocean side vs farm land), and feeling diverse wind patterns.

Fresh Gear

There’s nothing that can increase motivation more than buying a new bike! You count the days, hours even, until you can give your new baby a test ride. Immediately you want to investigate how responsive the bike is, its comfort level, or how smooth the gear shifting can be. Even if you’ve only bought new clothing gear, there’s always an itch to go and show it off. This can also relate to buying new cycling shoes, where you can assess the difference between triathlon shoes versus road shoes. Having new cycling equipment by any means is exciting, it’s a cyclist’s version of Christmas; hence, an effective motivator to go out and train as soon as possible.

New Workout

As a rookie cyclist, every workout seems new, exciting, and challenging, but if you’ve been riding for quite some time now, these workouts can become repetitive. Although there are certain workouts, which act as staples and deliver results, it doesn’t hurt to try out a new regimen occasionally. “I Love Bicycling” has some great articles on different workouts that address specific weaknesses. Also, Joe Friel’s book “The Triathlete’s Training Bible” and “The Cyclist’s Training Bible” both have great workout routines. Friel does a great job on breaking down different types of workouts, providing drills to address weaknesses, differentiating speed work vs endurance work and when to do either one. By completing a new workout, it helps us feel as though we’re progressing towards our goal, and provides us with some confidence when we complete them successfully.

In trying any one of these 5 motivators we will certainly see a surge in our eagerness to ride and consequently in our efforts.

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