Cycling and Poetry

A bristling love poem from a toothbrush to a bicycle tire! Could have been called an Ode to Spring…

And here’s another example from Copenhagen: an art installation with bicycle frames and a poem on each side

Here’s one of the poems:

“I often look out the window
watching for the postman
as he parks his bicycle
at door after door
until he reaches mine.”

What one considers “good” poetry is a particular thing, so I’ll try to find other examples in the future because I really do find something poetic about bicycles and the experience of cycling. If anyone has other suggestions, let me know and I’ll post them!

Toguri Training meets Emilia Romagna!

Toguri Training is going to Italy!

April 21st to April 29th 2012: 8 nights accommodation amidst the gentle slopes of Riccione, plus 3 meals, wine with dinner, a castle dinner, trips to Pascucci Coffee Factory, Olive oil and Wine tasting, and the option of long steady rides or coached training sessions: $1450 taxes included. You’re responsible for airfare.

Interested in more details? Click on EITHER an attacking, bald Marco Pantani in pink…or a permed Mario Cippolini  for details:

A Cycling Coach talks about Coaching Cycling & the Fall Season

This post is for anyone who is looking for a cycling coach and wants to know a bit about our approach at Toguri Training. It is also a post to let readers know that… The Fall Season was a HUGE success! In fact it was so successful that I just didn’t have time to blog. So expect a series of blogs over the holidays as I bring you up to speed on what we’ve been up to and where we are going.

As a brief aside, if you are interested in computraining with us during the Winter session I strongly recommend you check out the Winter schedule and contact Michelle ASAP: michelle@toguritraining.com  The majority of classes are already fully booked and we cannot keep up with demand for peak hours.

OK, so here’s a recap of the Fall Session that describes some of the coaching strategies offered by TTS: 

• We added two new computrainers, modified the training platform to provide ez access to wiring, and reorganized the training area to accomodate the new bikes. When I say “we”, I really mean Michelle Paiement and Joe Shama. They set things up and the session ran problem-free!

• We added more training times, classes filled and business more than doubled thanks primarily to word-of-mouth referrals and general buzz within the YM-YWHA.

• We altered the Fall training program and it really worked! Last year I was unhappy with the Fall program and really wanted to improve it. I made three significant changes:

1. The use of Rider Profiles:

In Montreal there is a real fixation when it comes to indoor training on your “threshold watts”, which usually refers to the highest average watts you can maintain for 15-20 min. Riders are often coached to measure their abilities in relation to their 20-min efforts–as if that was the entire measure of their abilities and fitness. This is a misguided approach to training and it narrows the experience of the sport to only one key element of cycling while devaluing others. In order to begin changing the mindset of many of our clients, we have adapted the use of rider profiles created by Hunter Allen and Andrew Coggan to our needs. Throughout the Fall session we collected data from workouts that measured anything from their peak power to their average watts over 30-sec intervals all the way up to 20-min efforts. This allows our coaches to have a broad profile of our clients’ strengths and weaknesses, as well as their ability to recover from intense workloads. Crucially, this will help us not only shape the Winter training session but also we’ll be able to better communicate with riders during workouts. A better understanding of a rider’s needs will lead to better coaching. Finally, using these broader profiling methods allows us to also compare our clients to those trained by Allen and Coggan. For example, we’ll be able to tell riders more accurately where they stand in relation to a larger pool of riders. This is helpful to us when we design outdoor training groups for the summer.

2. We changed the vocabulary through which we communicate workload, or an interval’s intensity.

We used to ask clients to train at specific percentages of their 20-min threshold watts. They would train in “zones” articulated as percentages (“8 min at 95-105%”). As a coach, I’m dedicated to teaching CYCLING. I have always found the language I used to train people indoor too abstract. Outdoor we use terms like “tempo” or “full out” or “threshold”. We’ve started naming our ranges “endurance”, “tempo”, “lactate threshold” etc, as the benefits of this FINALLY dawned on me. We are actively trying to get clients to understand the physiological effects of riding at, for example, “tempo”. We want clients to be aware of how “tempo” feels in their legs at the onset and 1h down the road. We want them to better recognize their recovery and respiration patterns while riding “tempo”. And we want them to better understand the importance of good gear selection to prolonged “tempo” efforts. We believe this will help lead to better performance when riding with challenging groups.

More abstract terms like “full out” need to be explained in relation to the scenario. We’re therefore taking time to explain what “full out” means when doing short power intervals, and what it means when doing 40-min “full out”. In my experience both recreational riders and racers can benefit from explicit instruction on how to pace and how to conduct themselves during power workouts. I dedicated two workouts this session to explaining not only how to go “full out” during short intervals, but also how to recover and maintain focus between efforts. Better management of one’s energy through good gear selection, riding postures, breathing patterns PLUS better bike/training habits were the main focus of these workouts. The watts came second. We’ll focus on the watts now that clients have a basic understanding of the demands of the drill, along with strategies for how to best express their fitness on a bike.

3. More muscular endurance. Last year I used a power-orientated approach that worked really well with Elite racers. I got caught-up in a specific model of workout and reduced the actual time spent on muscular endurance. The training was adequate, and people got stronger–especially in the Winter session. I did not, however, feel like it was the best approach and it led to unnecessary levels of fatigue. The reorganization of this year’s training has really worked. Almost all clients have gained significant levels of fitness and they are not burnt out or fatigued. I spent time during the summer re-reading texts and examining current research regarding training for cyclists. The changes made have improved our coaching. In fact I have never been more satisfied with a fall training regime. The challenge now is to build on this momentum for the Winter!

Again, if you haven’t signed up, check out the Winter Schedule and contact Michelle ASAP: michelle@toguritraining.com

Here’s a list of other things we’ve been doing. We’ll be blogging about them over the holidays:

• We now offer indoor Strength Classes for cyclists in a small group format. They’re run by Richard Tardif and Lucas Pellan, in consultation with me. So far, so good. Expect a blog on our approach.

• We expanded the racing team’s calendar and budget, while adding a new title sponsor. The Elite Men’s Team has been training with me on Sundays, and aside from one of them throwing up during a day of testing everything has been going well! More news about the team shortly!

• We offered a Spin Certification seminar in December, as we try to contribute more cycling-specific knowledge to all the hugely successful spinning programs in the city. Spinning vs Computraining? A blog is on the way!

• We are working on a spring training camp in Italy!

• We will have club kit available in February so you can look great for the spring.

• Lastly, we got a Nespresso Machine in the office!!

Unfortunately we may have created a dependancy in the case of Provincial TT champ, Judith Hayes (!) who knocks an espresso back and then seems to repeat “po po po” really fast with a high-pitched helium-affected voice for about 20 min.

Ultimately, our goal is to bring people together who use cycling as a means to get fit. We want to teach the ability to express that fitness in a variety of cycling scenarios. To end, here’s a photo of a women’s group we helped assemble through group training rides, then they took over and started organizing themselves for a couple end-of-the-summer rides. Cycling networks that work!!

Group Cycling Certification Saturday December 10, 2011 REGISTER NOW!

ARE YOU LOOKING TO TAKE OR UPDATE YOUR CYCLE CERTIFICATION?
This comprehensive one-day course is designed and presented by coaches Scott Toguri McFarlane and Michelle Paiement from TOGURI TRAINING. It delivers everything you need to create, plan and teach safe, effective and motivational indoor cycling classes for a variety of fitness levels.

SATURDAY, December 10, 2011
from 11:00 am – 5:00pm
YM-YWHA Ben Weider JCC, 5400 Westbury Avenue
$119 (taxes included)

Click HERE to REGISTER

Photos/Vids of last night’s workout at Murray Hill Park!

TTS is now 3 weeks into our outdoor training workouts at Murray Hill Park in Montreal. If you’re interested, send me an email: scott@toguritraining.com

Last night was a glorious fall evening, the kind where the day just seems to settle in the trees and linger, before the night falls through the branches.

Richard Tardif and Lucas Pellan took us through a well-paced hour of training and I was getting tired so I pretended to have to take photos for the blog! Here they are–though we were missing Deb, Daniel, Louis, Max…

 

The state of some of these planks reminds me of the state of Montreal’s bridges:

 

Here’s William Blackburn doing the first minute of a 3-ish minute set. Low walking lunges for half the soccer field–10 push-ups–sprint back to the start:

And here’s Will battling to do the next part of the set: plank variation–reverse lunge walk for half the soccer field–sprint back to the start. No footage of the reverse lunges etc as I jumped back into the workout:

The point of this post is that we’re just getting going with off-the-bike stuff. We’ve got friendly groups that joke around while being led through efficient, well-paced workouts targeted for our current level of fitness and the muscular imbalances produced by cycling hard all summer. We’ll kick it up a notch when we move indoor. We’re running close to capacity right now, but if you’re interested, send me an email and we’ll make it work: scott@toguritraining.com