Sunday, June 14, 2009

What would Eddy Merckx do?


I sometimes find myself asking: "What would Eddy Merckx do?" or "What would Bernard Hinault do?"
The answer is always the same: "They'd drag their arse away from the internet/TV/bed/sofa (delete as applicable) and go training - further, faster and harder than you could ever ride, you wimp!"
Perhaps every cyclist asks themselves the same thing. I bet everyone who's ever read the Rider does. For all our modern training methods, power meters and carbon this, that and the other, there are no shortcuts to being a double hard bastard like Messieurs Le Blaireau and Le Cannibal.
What got me thinking about this, was that ever since I discovered cyclocross, I've barely ridden my road bike for more than two hours at a time, and mostly I've been doing intervals. It's all very targeted and effective, but in a lot of ways, I've gone soft. The idea of riding for four hours by myself now fills me with horror.
With this weekend's good weather, I decided to put myself on a bootcamp: four hours Saturday, followed by a split day on Sunday, adding up to a total of four hours. And you know what, with one ride to go, I'm actually enjoying it. I can actually feel my pain threshold increasing as I ride.
What would Eddy Merckx do? He'd be out on his bike putting the boot in, which is exactly what I plan to do right now. What's your excuse?

3 comments:

ThePixelMerch©nt said...

Scroll down until you hit 'Training' by DrjOn. He's on a rigid singlepeed MTB! Then find his two day bivvi ride.

ThePixelMerch©nt said...

Sorry, forgot the bleedin link innit:

http://vc-moulin.blogspot.com/2009_03_01_archive.html

Alex Murray said...

Ah but Jean Bobet suggest him and Louison never rode much more than two or three hour training rides. And Lemond seems to think that short intense hour bursts are what you need to keep your levels high. Everything else will just follow.

Which is why I'm hoping I'll not get sick this winter and can ride loads of cross races again because the previous year it had me really fit by the end of the winter. Even if I am ridiculously slow relative to the rest of the world.