How to Train for Bicycling (1913)
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Citation
How to Train for Bicycling (1913). American Sports Publishing Company, 1913. cyclearchive.com, https://cyclearchive.com/books/how-to-train-for-bicycling-1913/
Page numbers are pages of the PDF, which can differ from the numbers printed on the page.
Contents
- How far a novice should ride: three miles at first, about twelve or fifteen miles after a fortnight, and twenty or thirty a day later. The text gives Dr. Richardson's rule of six miles an hour for six hours (thirty-six miles) for middle-aged riders, and ten or fifteen miles 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. The descent on the next page calls for a trustworthy brake and keeping the machine in hand, and for not riding down 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 a mixture of vinegar, spirits of turpentine and beaten raw egg whites, which the text calls a veterinary remedy that also helps 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 or Dr. Richardson's milk tea carried in a flask, and a raw egg beaten up in milk as a reviver.
- Racing has done good service to cycling. The text advises a rider to take competent medical opinion first, notes that hernia need not bar riding, that varicose veins are less of a bar than for walking, and that short sight is a handicap, and recommends racing a roadster before a racing machine.
- Training prepares the body for severe strain and must be guided by a modern adviser, not overtrained. The text describes the trainer's routine after a half-hour work-out (sweating, a cold shower, flannel), evening quarter-mile spurts and a weekly mile against the watch, and the racing posture: seat down, head still, eyes forward.
- Preparing for an hour record needs a trainer who does not overwork the rider and reliable pacemakers: two months of racing, then two weeks of pacing from the track, with the pace kept even at more than twenty-nine miles in the hour. The text adds no stimulants while riding and, in the spring, a physic followed by a gradual build-up to a season from late May to late October.
- By Frank McCollough. The six qualities of a champion racing cyclist are strength, a fast wheel, training, confidence, headwork and a good trainer. The training is two months of daily road work from mid-March, then five-mile track grinds with eighth-mile sprints, and the wheel should suit the rider's height and weight.
- By Earl W. Peabody, winner of 110 firsts in 1897. Light exercise until 1 April, then a five-week build-up from two-mile rides at about three minutes a mile to a hard mile and eighth-mile sprints, all under the trainer's eye, on a gear about six inches lower than the racing gear.
- Why cycling is easier than walking: walking wastes work lifting the body at each step, about 24 foot-pounds for a man of 144 pounds, while a bicycle moves in a level line. A towing test with a spring balance gave an average pull of about seven pounds, at a speed of about eight miles an hour.
- By Charles Murphy. His preparation from June 1899 at Babylon, Long Island, for a mile behind a locomotive: a short spell of dieting, dumbbells, boxing and skipping, daily road work with plenty of substantial food and little drink, and the ride itself, which he calls the nearest thing to death he had known.
- Charles Murphy's mile behind a locomotive at Maywood, Long Island: a trial of 65 seconds on 21 June 1899, then 57 4-5 seconds on 30 June 1899, behind a wind-shield and wedge on the rear platform, with the quarter-mile splits and the train's speed of about sixty-four miles an hour on the last quarter.