Our Training Philosophy

Cycling forms such a large part of the South African culture, it is not only seen as a form recreation but also forms part of networking where corporates sponsor events for their employees or clients. This however has led to the participation of the “amateur athlete” in events such as the Cape Epic that is extremely demanding since it was designed to cater for professional cyclists from all over the world to compete for UCI points. Professional cyclists have remarkable physiological capabilities and they have spent years developing these physiological characteristics and honing their cycling skills. These athletes are revered among the cycling community. This has led to many amateur cyclists trying to assimilate their training programs which unfortunately has resulted not only in generic training programs but also amateur cyclists who are completely overtrained and being diagnosed with labels such as “burn out” or “chronic fatigue syndrome”. Often amateur cyclists are under the erroneous impression that these professional athletes have the “secret recipe” or the “silver bullet” and they attempt to follow a training plan designed for an experienced professional cyclist, completely dismissing the fact that this training plan was tailored for that individual. The truth of the matter is that these cyclists have worked extremely hard for a very long time to reach their current level of performance and most of them were able to put their full focus and energy into their sport since this was their chosen career path. The message here is that even though the human body has remarkable capabilities of adaptation and endurance sports participation has no age restriction, the ideal recipe to follow to develop into a high-performance athlete is not only unique to the individual but it must fit into your current lifestyle too.

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Training science involves a careful manipulation of the variable’s frequency, intensity, and duration. The distribution of these has been in contention among coaches and Sport Scientists for quite some time. This is where the coach must use his/her knowledge and experience to continually assess the cyclist to ensure that the athletes respond well to the training program in that they show a gradual improvement in performance, and that they do not reach a non-functionally overreached state that could eventually lead to overtraining. Unfortunately overtraining has become a more common phenomenon since most time poor professionals have taken on the ‘no pain no gain’ training philosophy squeezing in as many short, high intensity efforts (HITT) between work and other life responsibilities thereby completely neglecting their body’s need to recover. When referring to recovery I am not only talking about resting the legs after a long ride but also allowing your central nervous system to recover since that is also under strain in today’s “rat race” we call our daily lives. Although HITT training is effective and one can see large improvements over a short time, these results are often not sustainable if it is not correctly Periodized throughout the season (i.e., a year). A cyclist’s training season is divided onto time periods or mesocycles where the focus shifts from one element (i.e., developing your base) to another (i.e., V̇O2max development). Repetitively doing three HITT sessions per week in conjunction with a weekend ride is therefore not an effective training strategy.

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With all this in mind, our coaching philosophy at Train Like a Pro is therefore focused on the gradual development of an athlete based on their individual goals with the aim of assisting them to reach their full potential. There are unfortunately no short-cuts in endurance development and that is why we advocate training plans built for at least three months in preparation for a specific event. We aim to design unique training plans tailored to you based on (i) your cycling experience, (ii) your body’s ability to recover and adapt to the training, (iii) geared towards your specific performance goals and (IV) your psychological needs.

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The training process firstly involves an assessment and evaluation of your current fitness and experience as a cyclist. We then design a Periodized training plan based on your ability, availability, and goals (events). Your training progress will be assessed and analyzed on a continual basis with regular feedback, and we adapt the plan based on your training response. There are different training packages available to choose from, each offering different levels of feedback and support.