Customer Reviews

Serious Cycling

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Very detailed, I found "serious cycling" easy and enjoyable to read. Ideal for the self - coached athlete, it helps personalize your cycling program depending on your present abilities. While reading you find that there is much more to training and becoming a better rider then you first thought, but it puts the "why" into training in addition to the "how" giving a better understanding and appreciation with what changes your body must undergo to be a better cyclist.

Periodization, training modes, keeping diaries and more... The nutrition section I found to be a little "old school" but, nevertheless, interesting and backed by studies. This information is aimed at the "serious cyclist" and may be too much for someone not willing to put forth the 15+ hours a week.

Burke, a well known name among cyclists, gives very detailed and sometimes complicated advice about how to train, how to create a training schedule for various goals, how and why to make a training diary, etc. Readers should be aware that his advice is aimed at the very serious cyclist, and his training schedules range from those for serious collegiate cyclists (~15hrs/week) to professionals (~25+ hrs/week). His advice is sound, but it may be more than most people really need. His peak mileage (feb) is 2000miles--that's 500 miles per week!

A big question for me when buying my first book on training for racing, was "Who provides the most reliable and important information?" I have seen Dr. Burke quoted in a variety of sources including Bicycling magazine, Velo magazine, and Chris Carmichael's web site. So I had the impression he is respected in the sport. Further, when reading his writings in other sources, he has gone into the underlying physiological processes that contribute to one's performance on a bike. As such, I decided to purchase his book based on his apparent credibility and the depth of information he provides. Strengths of his book include its excellent coverage of what goes into training for competitive cycling. From beginning "base training" to sprint training, periodization, and planning one's training for the entire year. He also speaks at length on nutrition, equipment/rider aerodynamics, body positioning on the bike, and adjunct training methods. Again, there is an emphasis on underlying physiological processes including some discussion of relevant research. I would say the book's weaknesses lie with it's failure to address racing tactics. Certainly, you learn about what is happening with the body at race pace, but this book will not tell you about positioning for a sprint or pacing one's self for a time trial.
In short, buy this book if you are serious about racing and want to enhance your knowledge of what goes into training for competition. Don't buy this book if you want to learn about tactics.

i've had this book for a year now and every time i read it i get something new out of it. this book is concise and to the point. not everything in here is what people want to hear, but it is all beneficial. this book has helped me a lot and has shaped my training plan. i recommend it strongly. unlike some books that trash around and beat the bush, this book is straight up and tells you what to do, how, when, and how long. it looks at different groups of riders and has a recommendation for each and what sort of training they should be doing at a given time. however, like someone mentioned, there are no racing tactics in this book, just how to get into shape for the race/season. but if you think about it, if you train consistently and hard, you can get ahead of all the riders (early on) and call it good. yeah, you may be geting the full force of the wind and all, but with all the training in you, you should be ready. the elements are something to expect. make them your advantage. start by getting this book.

This give you some good basics, but you are better off buying any book for cycling that focuses on training with a power meter.

This book is packed with valuable information. This book alone is all one needs to get start a serious cycling training and racing regimen. The only thing that would be better is hiring a personal cycling coach. Even then this book would be a great augmentation.

I thought this book lacked training progression info. That is how to progress your LT intervals, your VO2 intervals etc... what time of the year to begin training, how long to train? what about crash cycles, when to do them?

I felt alot of topics were without citations, and others were with a great deal of citations.

When I buy a book on serious cycling I want to know how to progress my training, not just the details of training. I want to know the relationship between volume and intensity and how this changes as the year goes on (more volume in base vs more intenisty in build, but how much?)

To me, this is another one of the 20 or so books that are just there to make some quick cash and build their coaching services.

I made hte mistake of going with Carmicheal's associates for a few months, Hunter Allen for nearly a year, and one of Joe Friel's associates for a few motnhs. This mistake was made after reading each of their books. None of them made me gain any good numbers, it was when I found a local passionate coach that I actually started seeing numbers and getting invites to the races I wanted.