If you ask me – how can I cycle faster, I’ll say there is no shortcut way! It requires extra effort, proper rules, and of course, A LOT OF dedication!
No matter you’re a professional cyclist or just a hobbyist, we, sometimes, want to increase the speed of our bike to get the real feeling of a “Rider.” But trust me, it’s too risky if you’re not familiar with the secrets and strategies for riding faster.
Proper stretching and maintaining a better position are really important if you’re wondering about improving the overall speed. Alongside these factors, you should pay a lot of attention to healthy foods, especially vitamin “B,” that aids in muscle growth.
Guess what? Proper training is another key to enhancing cycling speed. Want to know more? Well, let me show you everything in detail.
Strategies and Secrets for Cycling Faster
Believe it or not, you can’t always ride so fast even if you have enough fuel in your body or you have one of the best bikes in your hands.
But don’t lose hope! You can definitely do the next best thing, which is balancing the average speed with the desired speed. So, in order to get the optimal result at the end of your ride, I have added a few strategies that will help you make your cycling way too faster, without a doubt!
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Stretch Properly
A quick exercise like stretching can give you a head start to ride faster. Focus on your leg muscles such as the quads, calves, hamstrings, and glutes to stretch out completely as it helps your muscles to get fully relaxed.
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Maintain a Correct Position
Not only an accurate position makes your ride more comfortable, but it also increases the duration and ability to ensure a faster ride. So, pick up the right position that will enhance your power straight away.
Besides, you can also take the help of a power meter that indicates the power if your positions change rapidly.
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Don’t Get Dehydrated
Dehydration is a major drawback for your slow speed while cycling. Your body needs adequate amounts of energy to work more quickly and run smoothly.
So before you go for a ride, make sure to drink a sufficient amount of sports drink that will store muscle glycogen at a rate of 50% for at least an hour of your ride. But if there is no sports drink near to you, you can have regular water to meet your requirements.
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Optimizing the Aerodynamics
One of the main reasons that you get slow while cycling is because of the air pressure. It’s true you can’t feel the air that much when you’re walking in the park. But when it comes down to riding your bike, you definitely can get the feel of the air while cycling at a speed of 20 miles per hour.
In order to reduce the drag force, you can equip the aero kit, which includes tight clothes and a panel of optimized aero.
It can develop your speed by cutting down the drag. Also, you can fix the position according to the requirements.
Be sure to keep your hands on the lever hoods and the forearms if the cycle includes drop handlebars. Finally, with proper practice, it will become comfortable.
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Train Your Muscles
Muscle memory of your body needs standard training to make sure that you’re getting more power, which is actually required to increase the overall speed.
Hoping and explosive jumping makes your muscles more active and develop extra strength to improve the amount of speed required for cycling. And good to know – these types of exercises are called “Plyometrics Training.”
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Take Plenty of Vitamins
Vitamins need no introduction about how important they are in terms of endurance and increasing speed. Vitamin “B” helps in the growth of your body, and if you lack this particular vitamin, then, of course, you’ll face difficulties, and you’ll have to struggle a lot to build muscle.
So, if you want to enhance endurance and speed, ensure to eat food that’s rich in “vitamin-B,” including marmite, fortified cereals, dark-green vegetables, whole grains, and so on.
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Go Full-On for Short Tracks
There’s no need to worry about saving your energy for the end if you are planning to ride for a shorter track, like just for 4km.
It has been found during the research that in high-intensity events, people who tend to begin their ride more than the average speed instead of storing their energy don’t get tired so quickly.
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High-Intensity Interval Training (HIIT)
For increasing endurance, HIIT is important to make sure you maintain the speed for a longer period. For this purpose, you can start a quick session on HIIT per week.
The benefit of the HIIT is that it reuses the fat in the best way possible that’s already stored in your body as fuel. Thus, it burns the fat as well as increases efficiency when we talk about fast cycling.
While endurance only helps to build up the “slow-twitch muscle fibers,” the HIIT invites the development of the fast-twitch fibers, enabling you to get extra energy to drive faster and even better.
Why Developing the Legs Is Very Important?
While driving a bicycle or mountain bike, the only main body part we use to ride is, hands down, the legs. As a result, this particular muscle group should be more developed, especially if you want to cycle faster.
In that case, there is no need to be a “Hercules” who did 500 pounds of squats easily! But yes, you should definitely increase the overall strength of your lower body part by doing a couple of essential workouts, for example – deadlift, squat, leg press, walking lunges, and so forth.
Wrapping Up!
Well, the article on how can I cycle faster explains every nook and cranny about cycling more quickly. By following each and every technique I’ve mentioned above, you can definitely improve your overall speed for cycling.
But if speed is what you’re concerned about, make sure to wear a full-face helmet and other essential safety dresses to always keep yourself out of danger!
Hi, this is Ivy Audren Charity. The appliance lover fell in love with baking but had a big problem finding the right bike for him. I understand that in this job I am comfortable buying the right bike. Meanwhile… More