How to Train for Bicycling (1903)
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Citation
How to Train for Bicycling (1903). American Sports Publishing Company, 1903. cyclearchive.com, https://cyclearchive.com/books/how-to-train-for-bicycling-1903/
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Contents
- How far a novice should ride: three miles at first, twelve or fifteen miles after a fortnight, and twenty or thirty a day later. Dr. Richardson's rule of six miles an hour for six hours (thirty-six miles) is offered for middle-aged riders, and ten or fifteen miles or less for ladies.
- Advice on climbing and descending: rush a short hill, husband strength on a long one, and walk the machine when the rider is in distress. Going down, keep the machine in hand, check speed before a right-angled turn, and do not ride a steep hill without full confidence in the brake.
- A remedy for the soreness of a new or returning rider: a warm bath and a rub-down with vinegar, spirits of turpentine and beaten raw egg whites, the veterinary 'white oils' that also serves for insect bites.
- Outside strict training the cyclist may eat much what he pleases, but not too heavily, especially before a ride, and should avoid pastry as indigestible.
- Non-alcoholic drinks do the best work, and the rider should drink as little as possible while riding. The text suggests weak tea in a pocket flask or Dr. Richardson's milk tea, and a raw egg beaten up in milk as a reviver.
- Racing has done good service to cycling. The would-be racing man should take competent medical opinion first; hernia need not bar riding, varicose veins are less of a bar than for walking, and short sight is a handicap. A beginner should race a roadster before a racing machine.
- Training prepares the body for severe strain and must be guided by a modern adviser, not overdone. The routine: half an hour at half speed, a towel sweat, a cold shower and flannel, then evening quarter-mile spurts and a weekly mile against the watch, with rules to look ahead, sit still on the saddle and keep the head still.
- Preparation for an hour record: two months of racing, pacemakers rehearsed for about two weeks, a morning ride of ten miles and an afternoon of about twenty at 2:07 to 2:15 a mile. The hour needs a very steady pace of more than twenty-nine miles, and the text covers rubbing and the rest after the ride.
- Frank McCollough's list of the qualities of a championship racing cyclist, in order: strength, a fast wheel, training, confidence, headwork and a good trainer.
- Strength comes first: a rider who qualifies in a trial heat can be beaten in the final by a stronger man who has kept something back, because the speedier rider is exhausted by his sprint.
- The rider must ride a wheel as fast as his opponents', chosen to suit his height and weight: a 23-inch frame of 24 pounds for a tall heavy man, a 20-inch frame of 18 pounds for a rider of five feet and 100 to 110 pounds, both with a 44-inch wheelbase.
- McCollough's method: long daily road rides from mid-March for two months, then a five-mile track grind with sprints, about three weeks to racing condition, daily massage of the legs, and a gear that gives the best speed for the least fatigue.
- Belief in one's own speed often wins a close race, and a rider who expects to lose will lose. The text distinguishes confidence from pluck, which is the will to go on when nearly exhausted.
- The tactics of a bunch race: sheltering behind the bunch, catching a rival's rear wheel, judging the final sprint, dropping back and rushing past, feigning exhaustion, and keeping from being pocketed.
- A good trainer should have raced, know anatomy, massage, the bicycle and the rules, judge a rider's condition at a glance, plan his diet and decide when he is ready. McCollough notes that anyone who rubs a rider is called a trainer.
- Earl W. Peabody's schedule for an intercollegiate candidate: light exercise before 1 April, then steady two-mile work building to five miles, sprints from the third week, and a hard mile with a closing spurt, with advice on position, gearing, clothing and the stomach.
- Why cycling is easier than walking: walking wastes work lifting the body at every step, roughly 24 foot-pounds for a 144-pound man, while a bicycle moves in a straight line. A spring balance towed behind a bicycle gave about seven pounds of pull at eight miles an hour.
- Charles Murphy's account of preparing for his mile behind a locomotive on the Long Island Railroad's board track: dieting, dumbbells, boxing and a home trainer under John Stewart, then road work at Babylon and Maywood, Long Island, up to the ride on 30 June 1899.