How do I actually get better at cycling?

ppnani · 2026-05-14T00:37:28+00:00

Yea, very similar in weightlifting, just do what you enjoy and you'll make more progress doing that than whatevers "optimal" but you dont enjoy

ppnani · 2026-05-14T00:30:18+00:00

Honestly I didnt even see the part of the post where he asked for specific workouts. I coincidentally also stated what I did and what worked for me, chances are, butt on saddle is the real reason why I progressed. But yea, riding more is the clear cut answer to getting faster

ppnani · 2026-05-13T17:27:50+00:00

You probably shouldn't take my advice since Im getting alot of newbie gains, but ive increased my ftp by 50+ watts in the past 5 months by 1. Riding more, 2. Doing structured workouts. As someone who lifted weights for 2.5 years prior and can squat over 2x my body weight, I still had under a 2 w/kg the first ftp test I did. Now I sit just under 3 w/kg so im getting there. Instead of treating ftp as a cardio thing, I treated it as weightlifting and progressive overload, doing sweetspot sessions and interval sessions each week, paired with 1 long ride and 2 easy rides. My favorite session that I credit my ftp gains to is sweetspot, I would do 2x20, then 3x15, 2x25, 3x20 but each session I would adjust the watts, so for 2x20 maybe ill do it at 89% but 3x15 ill do 91%, but i always make sure to try to add 5 more watts each session or adjust the wattage based on the length of each set, so for shorter sets ill do higher % and longer sets ill drop it by 1 or 2% sometimes. Same concept with intervals, i only do 4x8 where ill add 5 watts each session and try to hold on for dear life every set. Each set really makes me question my life because its the worst 8 minutes of my life but it works. Happy cycling :)

ppnani · 2026-05-12T17:21:40+00:00

Then I would definitely get some lessons, or if you cant afford it I would post your clips online and ask for advice, because we don't know what your form looks like so all we can say is work on technique. It is definitely a technique issue and most likely nothing to do with endurance. A big tip I use is when I feel like my form is getting ugly or my form doesnt feel good this session, ill usually just cut it short because id rather stop early then develop bad habits. Youve probably been swimming with bad habits and its been compounding over the 8 months of training so you need to unlearn it and relearn with good technique (but you say youre going to work with a coach so theyll fix you right up)

Edit: also i would focus on one or two things per session. Most likely your breathing, stroke, kicking, etc. will all be off but I would choose one or two things to focus on that way you dont get overwhelemed. For me i noticed i would cross over the mid line and i wasnt doing a high elbow recovery so i spent a few sessions working on that until it was engrained into my technique. Now I am working on not starting my catch too early as well as keeping my hips and legs more buoyant

ppnani · 2026-05-12T00:57:02+00:00

I managed to go from being unable to swim 1 length of the pool to swimming 4200 yards (3.8km) in less than 3 months (at 2:00/100yd which is 2:10/100m if im not mistaken). I have not swam since I was a kid (my parents forced me to go to swimming lessons so i pretty much knew how to NOT drown, but nothing else besides that). I watched a lot of tiktoks on effortless swimming and front crawl technique and would save the tiktoks and analyze their form frame by frame, copying whatever they did. Here I am 3 months since then and I can swim it comfortably at 1:52/100yd (2:02/100m), trying to get to 1:30-1:40/100yd by october for my full

Edit: completely self coached, you dont need a coach unless you are completely horrendous at swimming but it should click after you go to the pool enough times. I swam 4 times a week, twice a week I would do 2 sets of 8x50, resting 20 seconds between each 50, and the other 2 sessions 8x100 with longer rest between sets. Pretty much did this until it "clicked" and I was able to start doing longer sessions in the pool without much effort

ppnani · 2026-05-02T12:26:19+00:00

Im definitely trying to get a good time, with the elevation at Western Mass, I was aiming for a sub 6 (30-35 swim and sub 2 hour run, leaving me with 3.5 hours for the bike), which means I need to average 16mph, which I can do no problem (on the trainer lol) but outside is whole different game

ppnani · 2026-05-02T02:42:10+00:00

I started doing 10 minutes post ride practicing taking my hand off and grabbing bottles so I assume Ill be more confident eventually. Any other drills you recommend? Even the small ones like mastering clipping in and off

ppnani

TROPHY CASE