One Extremely Powerful Training Tip:

This one could increase your performance on the bike, and at work, and greatly improve your health and life expectancy.  Are you ready?

Get more sleep.

That’s it.  Get more sleep.  Really.

Here’s the how it works.  Training is a stimulus.  The body responds to this stimulus by repairing and overcompensating.  But the body can only do this while you are resting.  Of course you should take one or two rest days in each training week, but if you are sleep deprived, you are not getting enough rest, and the full response to your training is seriously limited.  Besides, you’ll feel a lot better, be more alert, be more resistant to infection, miss fewer days of training and work, and be a happier person.

How much sleep is enough?  Most adults (over 25 years) can pretty well “get by” on 6 to 7 hours of sleep per night.  But the truth is that 8 hours would be about the minimum for good health.  Training increases this need.  Heavy training increases it significantly.

If you are training for between 8 and 10 hours per week, your nightly sleep time should be close to 9 hours per night.  If you are going through a period of 15 hours (or more) of training per week, the sleep requirement is closer to 10 hours per night.

Where do I find that kind of time?  I don’t have all the answers to that.  But I do have one great suggestion.  Turn the TV off, and limit internet time.  Really.  Various studies show different results for how much TV people watch, but it’s pretty clear that the typical American adult watches something like 4 to 5 hours of TV every day.  Could you possibly take two hours of that and use it better by sleeping?

Personal Disclosure:  I have been “television free” for over 15 years.  I haven’t missed it.  Somehow I manage to stay abreast of news, events, and important information.  But I have no idea who is on America’s Idolatrous Funny Dancing Stars, or for that matter, who shot JR.  Really, turn the one eyed monster off, and you will sleep more and better, and perform better athletically.

Now (ironically) here’s some ride info…

Night Ride Anyone?

We’re gonna do it.  We are going to go out, and ride around our city, marking out the “bounds.”  We’ll do this on the night of the Summer Solstice.  That’s June 21, 2010.

What’s the idea?  Well, basically, it’s an excuse to go out and ride our bikes, in a group, at night, and have some fun along the way.

In ancient times, folks would go out and “beat the bounds.”  That is, the leading people in the city would march out and around the extremities of the city holdings, checking out the conditions and sort of blessing the borders of the city.

What are we going to do, exactly?  We’ll meet up and go riding.  The ride will start in daylight, but it will continue into the darkness.  We will ride a big loop all the way around Peachtree City.  We’re starting at 8:00 PM, and we should be back between 11:00 PM and midnight.  Look for the route to be about 45 miles long.  This is intended to be a fun group ride.  The group should stick together.